Legion of Angels News Archive

Overweight people already know they are overweight. So should doctors keep nagging them to lose pounds?

That’s the issue tackled recently by one of my favorite medical blogs, called “Musings of a Distractible Mind.’’ The author, who goes by “Dr. Rob,” is Dr. Robert Lambert, an Augusta, Georgia physician who is board certified in internal medicine and pediatrics. On his blog, Dr. Rob muses about a variety of topics like llamas, twinkies and favorite patients. But I was particularly moved by a recent post, which was written after Dr. Rob’s encounter with an overweight patient who was clearly accustomed to being lectured about obesity. As Dr. Rob was about to discuss whether the man needed surgery for sciatica and back pain, the patient interrupted him, hanging his head in shame and blaming his weight for the problem. Dr. Rob writes:

This whole episode really bothered me. He was so used to being lectured about his obesity that he wanted to get to the guilt trip before I brought it to him. He was living in shame. Everything was due to his obesity, and his obesity was due to his lack of self-control and poor character. After all, losing weight is as simple as exercise and dietary restraint, right?

Perhaps I am too easy on people, but I don’t like to lecture people on things they already know. I don’t like to say the obvious: “You need to lose weight.” Obese people are rarely under the impression that it is perfectly fine that they are overweight. They rarely are surprised to hear a person saying that their weight is at the root of many of their problems. Obese people are the new pariahs in our culture; it used to be smokers, but now it is the overweight.

Dr. Rob says obese patients don’t need lectures.

Instead of patronizing obese patients with a lecture, I try sympathizing with them. Just because something is simple doesn’t make it easy. How do you quit smoking? You just stop smoking. We should just pull out of Iraq. There should be peace in the middle east. People should stop hurting each other and start being nice. All of these are good ideas, but the devil is in the details. Losing weight is a struggle, and it really helps to have people giving you a hand rather than knocking you down.

Dr. Rob writes that he still tries to help patients to lose weight, but he is concerned that a “culture of accusation and shame” is making matters worse for them.

The idea that their personal worth lies on their BMI is extremely damaging. There are a lot of screwed-up skinny people out there; just look at super-models. It is a lot easier to lose weight when you actually like yourself and want to do something about your health. Our culture of accusation and shame simply makes obese people hate themselves. If you hate yourself, why should you want to take care of your body?

Is obesity a problem? Sure it is. But we need to get off of our self-righteous pulpits. Obese people should not be made into a group of outcasts. The “them” mentality and the finger-wagging are no more than insecure people trying to feel better by putting down others.

What do you think? Is a “culture of shame and accusation” contributing to the nation’s obesity problem? Post your thoughts below.

Source — The New York Times

CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh (AFP) - At least 20 people have died and more than 20,000 left marooned as heavy rains over the past week triggered landslides and floods in southeast Bangladesh, an official said Sunday.

Three landslides caused by torrential monsoon rains killed 10 people while six others drowned in swirling flood waters in southeastern Cox’s Bazar district, said chief administrator Sajjadul Hasan.

Four more people died in another landslide in the country’s southeastern town of Teknaf on Sunday morning after their tin shack was buried under falling earth, he said.

“We have promptly taken steps to shift hundreds of people living at the slope of hills to safer places as it has become very risky due to days of incessant heavy rains,” he said.

Heavy rains since last week has also triggered flash floods in Cox’s Bazar district, which is home to the world’s largest unbroken beach.

“Low-lying areas in the districts have gone under four-five feet (1.3-1.7 metres of) flood water, stranding over 20,000 people,” Hasan said.

Several rivers in the southeastern hill districts burst their banks and caused the floods, officials said.

Bangladesh, which is criss-crossed by over 200 rivers, was hit by major floods last year, when water fed by melting glaciers in the Himalayas and heavy rains inundated more than 40 percent of the land.

More than a thousand people were killed in the floods, which left millions more homeless and damage to infrastructure and property was worth over a billion dollars.

Source — Yahoo!

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) – A suicide attacker killed at least eight people Sunday, including Pakistani police officers who were stationed near a rally protesting last year’s raid at the Red Mosque, Pakistan’s acting interior minister said.

A police official said earlier that the blast killed 10 police officers.

Video showed the bodies of policemen lying on the side of the road, while other seriously injured police officers and civilians were loaded onto stretchers and taken to waiting ambulances.

The attacker struck the police position on a roundabout around 8 p.m., near the rally and a marketplace.

The police were stationed at the outermost security perimeter, part of a protection cordon set up by the government for Sunday’s rally, according to Islamabad police Inspector General Asghar Gardezi.

It’s unclear if the suicide attacker was on foot or in a vehicle.

Pakistan’s acting Interior Minister Rehman Malik said about 12,000 people attended Sunday’s rally, which marked the first anniversary of government forces storming Islamabad’s Red Mosque, or Lal Masjid.

Malik, who went to the blast site shortly after the attack, said there were no lapses in security at Sunday’s rally. He said eight people were killed and 22 were wounded.

Last year’s July 10 raid — ordered by President Pervez Musharraf, who was Pakistan’s army chief at the time — ended a weeklong bloody standoff between military forces and Islamic extremists.

Nearly 100 people died when the security forces stormed the mosque. Most were radical students holed up inside, but the deaths included some women and children as well.

The raid was intended to rout Islamic extremists who hoped to establish a Taliban-style rule across the capital.

In retaliation, suicide bombers launched several strikes targeting civilians, police and security forces.

The raid led to the collapse of a cease-fire between Musharraf’s government and tribal leaders in the lawless territories along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.

The 2006 truce was blamed for establishing a safe haven for Taliban and al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan’s tribal regions.

Source — CNN