Obesity in America
Obesity has emerged as one of the most pressing health problems in the United States. Indeed, the overall trend toward obesity in American adults, as well as children and adolescents, has been increasingly identified by doctors, scientists, and the media as an "epidemic." All that is necessary for one to see how prevalent this problem has become is to note the wide plethora of diet pills, plans, gimmicks, and other remedies guaranteed to melt away the excess pounds plaguing the American population. Although many in the country imagine that their weight problems have much more consequence to their appearance than their health (or, at the very least, many give much more import to these issues), the truth is that the increasing prevalence of obesity in America has far reaching implications, chief among them issues of ethical, scientific, economic, political, and population-based significance.
The National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health reports that during 1999-2000, it was estimated that a full 30% of adults within the U.S., or close to 59 million people were clinically obese (those having a body mass index of 30 or more) (CDC). This is a figure all the more staggering when one factors in the serious health consequences associated with being overweight -- consequences that include higher incidence of elevated blood pressure, stroke, cancer, cardiovascular disease, heart attack, and diabetes, to name a few. Additionally, overweight people suffer from less serious, but often debilitating joint pain, as well as psychological problems as a result of their weight.
Interestingly, one can see that, even fertility is adversely affected by obesity. This was illustrated in a 1995 study in Saudi Arabia, which noted that fertility was significantly decreased among obese women patients (Carolus,
Hamilton,
Jaroudi,
Sieck). Not only does this fact have the potential to seriously affect population patterns, should the epidemic continue, but, globally, one could see that in smaller countries, if a similar epidemic were to occur, there may be very serious social...
In specific, the
CDC reports, in its article, "Overweight and Obesity: Economic Consequences":
Overweight and obesity and their associated health problems have a significant economic impact on the U.S.
Health care system (USDHHS, 2001). Medical costs associated with overweight and obesity may involve direct and indirect costs (Wolf and Colditz, 1998; Wolf, 1998). Direct medical costs may include preventive, diagnostic, and
treatment services related to obesity. Indirect costs relate to morbidity and mortality costs. Morbidity costs are defined as the value of income lost from decreased productivity, restricted activity, absenteeism, and bed days. Mortality costs are the value of future income lost by premature
death.
Given this, rather gloomy economic reality that arises out of the American Obesity problem, there is little wonder that the political discourse in the country has virtually "come alive" with various ideas concerning how best to deal with the issue. Interestingly, this varies from the "politicization" of the issue itself on the level of
definition and understanding (the beginning of classifying obesity as a disease, rather than a behavior), to the frenzied attempts by policy makers, as well as health insurance companies, to "educate" and allocate funds to an
education process that many believe might be the answer to the obesity issue.
However, scientifically, there remains a significant question as to whether these
politicians and policy makers -- indeed, even
physicians and those
suffering from the condition -- are truly convinced that the growing obesity trend is due to a lack of education (for example, concerning proper nutrition and exercise choices), or, instead to a cultural problem of excess. After all, most adult Americans know that
fast food, convenience food, and large portions, are direct causes of obesity -- yet they continue the
behavior in spite of this knowledge. To many, then, the main question that must be asked is "why?"
Here,
science seems to be pulling the most weight in the "why" question, for, through
drugs developed in the pharmaceutical industry, the…
