6/6/13
POLITICS: Should obesity be considered a disease?
By Kate Weggeland, Staff Writer
With the rising obesity level in the United States, scientists are debating whether or not obesity should be classified as a disease. Many government entities have affirmed that obesity is indeed a disease, yet no laws have been passed verifying this statement as accurate.
Obesity, like other diseases, impairs the proper
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functioning of the human body. Those who are obese “have excess adipose or fat tissue that causes the overproduction of certain molecules and mediators in the body, which lead to abnormal regulation of food intake and energy expenditure,” Procon.org reported. Obesity has been proven to vastly decrease a person’s life expectancy and lead to an early death. Those who are obese tend to have a life span three years shorter than those who do not suffer from obesity. However, in extreme cases, obesity can shorten a person’s life span up to 10 years. This can be compared to the shortened life span of a smoker. Government entities including the “Food and Drug Administration (FDA), National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have affirmed that obesity is a disease,” Procon.org reported. Since 2002, Americans who have been medically diagnosed as obese have been allowed to “claim federal tax deductions for doctor prescribed treatments, ‘special food’ and weight loss programs,” irs.gov stated.
However, many people do not think that obesity should be considered a disease. Obesity does not impair many of the normally functioning body structures like other diseases do. Typically, those who are obese do live shorter lives, but some obese people have actually lived longer lives than those not suffering from obesity. Obesity “does not have the characteristic signs or symptoms diseases typically have. The only characteristic sign of obesity is excess fat, which is the definition of obesity itself. They are also not symptoms for obesity,” the International Journal of Obesity stated. Obesity is a preventable health factor for other diseases, similar to how smoking is a preventable risk factor for lung cancer.
The debate over whether or not obesity is a disease continues today, as both the American obesity epidemic and the cost of treatment skyrocket.
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