Friday, April 22, 2005
Guilt By Association
It's been said that you can tell a lot about a person by the kind of company they keep. And we've all known people (or have been people ourselves) that, while they themselves may be wonderful individuals, get muddied and brought low by shady friends.
In a way this could possibly be what has happened with obesity. The CDC is currently going through a wilderness experience over the health risks of obesity. By itself obesity appears to be a harmless soul, jolly even. Many of the great people we've known in our lives were obese, almost defined by it even. For example, would Santa be Santa if he had six-pack abs?
So it is with the eye of a concerned parent that I am now going to inspect some of obesity's compatriots a little closer.
Osteoarthritis and obesity are like brothers. You see Osteoarthritis without obesity no doubt since he seems to be everywhere at once. However, osteoarthritis appears to be more severe in the presence of obesity. Obesity seems to magnify his bad qualities.
Adult onset diabetes is in the same boat with osteoarthritis. Both are seen alone and are nasty characters all by themselves. But obesity just seems to put them up to things when it's around, making them more bold and uncontrollable. Experience has shown that if obesity is removed from the scene diabetes becomes much more compliant. In some cases diabetes has been known to disappear altogether when obesity isn't around, it gets lonely I guess.
Hyperlipidemia, hypertension and coronary artery disease (who are, in fact, brothers) round out obesity's motley crew of friends. These guys cause havoc aplenty just in the presence of each other, so how much obesity plays in worsening an already bad situation is hard to calculate. My gut tells me that he is anything but a calming influence though.
Colon cancer has been seen with obesity at parties, but it is unknown how much he is really influenced by him.
To me it appears that obesity isn't the Beaver Clever he's now trying to make himself out to be. In fact he is more like the Eddie Haskell of the disease world. Not very threatening on his own, but can cause a lot of damage if around other diseases that are willing to be influenced by him.
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In a way this could possibly be what has happened with obesity. The CDC is currently going through a wilderness experience over the health risks of obesity. By itself obesity appears to be a harmless soul, jolly even. Many of the great people we've known in our lives were obese, almost defined by it even. For example, would Santa be Santa if he had six-pack abs?
So it is with the eye of a concerned parent that I am now going to inspect some of obesity's compatriots a little closer.
Osteoarthritis and obesity are like brothers. You see Osteoarthritis without obesity no doubt since he seems to be everywhere at once. However, osteoarthritis appears to be more severe in the presence of obesity. Obesity seems to magnify his bad qualities.
Adult onset diabetes is in the same boat with osteoarthritis. Both are seen alone and are nasty characters all by themselves. But obesity just seems to put them up to things when it's around, making them more bold and uncontrollable. Experience has shown that if obesity is removed from the scene diabetes becomes much more compliant. In some cases diabetes has been known to disappear altogether when obesity isn't around, it gets lonely I guess.
Hyperlipidemia, hypertension and coronary artery disease (who are, in fact, brothers) round out obesity's motley crew of friends. These guys cause havoc aplenty just in the presence of each other, so how much obesity plays in worsening an already bad situation is hard to calculate. My gut tells me that he is anything but a calming influence though.
Colon cancer has been seen with obesity at parties, but it is unknown how much he is really influenced by him.
To me it appears that obesity isn't the Beaver Clever he's now trying to make himself out to be. In fact he is more like the Eddie Haskell of the disease world. Not very threatening on his own, but can cause a lot of damage if around other diseases that are willing to be influenced by him.
# posted by Joe Florida @ 5:38 AM 
