Medical Causes for Obesity

My husband brought a recent news report to my attention out of Mississippi that would allow restaurants to refuse to serve overweight people. Representative John Read said that his purpose behind this bill was to help bring into fruition the number of obese people in Mississippi which totals over 30% of their population. If a bill like this were to pass anywhere it not only makes discrimination based on weight legal, but opens doors to other forms of legalized discrimination.

According to recent statistics around 58 million, 62% of adults and 34% of children, Americans are overweight and obesity rates are on the rise. The rise in obesity has been blamed on everything from a sedentary lifestyle to excessive consumption of fast foods as shown in the movie Super Size Me. It is just an automatic assumption that because someone is overweight they don't exercise, they don't eat right and overall they don't take care of themselves. Where this may be the case in some cases, it isn't the reason across the board. There are a number of medical reasons that can cause someone to become overweight. It's wrong to assume that because someone is overweight they eat too much. It isn't always the case. Sometimes the body just doesn't work right.

Hypothyroidism

In 2002 the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism reported that 9.2% of Caucasians have hypothyroidism. That is broken down further to 5.8% of women and 3.4% of men. It is also estimated that 1 in 4000 babies are born with hypothyroidism. Statistically that is a significant percentage of the population.

The thyroid is responsible for basal metabolism in the body. This is how the body turns calories into usable heat energy. If the thyroid function is low, this doesn't happen and the body isn't able to metabolize things properly and the body doesn't convert calories from food into a usable source. This causes excess weight gain, despite proper diet and exercise.

Cushings

Not nearly as common as hypothyroidism but still affecting ten per every one million people, another reason for excess weight is Cushings Disease and Cushings Syndrome. Cushings is caused by the body producing too much cortisol, or stress hormone. Cortisol is responsible for regulating blood pressure and the immune system as well as keeping the insulin levels in the body stable. In Cushings Disease, a tumor on the pituitary gland is responsible for the production of excess cortisol. Cushings Syndrome is caused by taking steroids such as prednisone for a long period of time.

Diabetes

Diabetes as it relates to weight is a catch-22. You are at high risk for diabetes if you are overweight, but being diabetic puts you at risk for being overweight. Diabetes is caused when the body does not properly produce or use insulin. This problem affects around 7% of the population in the United States.

These medical conditions only explain about 16% of the overweight population but does not account for those people on medications that are known to cause weight gain including some epilepsy medications, anti-depressives and birth control pills.

People with legitimate medical conditions that are responsible for excess weight are lumped in with everyone else when determining what population of the public is overweight or obese. These people are subjected to the same stigmas affecting those who are overweight because of overeating and lack of exercise. Passing laws aimed at the overweight to bring attention to and promote a healthy lifestyle isn't going to accomplish anything other than alienating the population it's supposed to help and opening the door for a plethora of discrimination lawsuits.