Summary
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently announced the removal of language from the Medicare Coverage Issues Manual precluding the identification of obesity as a "disease." This offers the promise of future reimbursement for the medical care and management of overweight and obesity, and elimination of a commonly cited barrier to treatment. Removing barriers to obesity treatment is important. If the only classifications open to obesity were "disease" or "character flaw," I would gladly throw my hat in the ring for disease-designation. Obesity is not about character, and has been the last bastion of socially acceptable prejudice in our society.
But, let's label obesity a new type of "drowning." The accumulation of body fat is anything but a disease. The body can only do a few things with calories: use them for immediate energy, burn them to generate heat, apply them to growth of body parts, or store them for later use.See the full content of this document
Extract
Drowning in a Vast Sea of Calories
For adults, who are no longer growing, once demands for energy use are met, two options exist: storage, or heat generatio...
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