Obesity needs to be renamed to remove the stigma and indicate it’s a hereditary disease, researchers say.
Measures such as BMI have left the public ‘confused’ about what obesity is, with most believing it simply means ‘being overweight’.
Instead, the disease should be renamed “chronic appetite dysregulation” to encourage people with symptoms to seek treatment.
Scientists have identified hundreds of genes that increase the risk of obesity, fueling the argument that it should be classified as a disease.
Mutations in these genes are believed to lead to changes in the parts of the brain that regulate appetite, causing some to overeat and gain weight.
Researchers want you to say they have “chronic appetite dysregulation” rather than obesity
By reclassifying obesity to reflect this, researchers suggest it would pave the way for those most in need of access to treatments such as appetite-suppressing weight-loss shots.
Dr. Margaret Steele, from the School of Public Health, University College Cork, studied the philosophical considerations of how obesity should be classified.
She said efforts should be made to “untangle” the public health and medical meanings of obesity and “acknowledge the fact that we are really talking about two different things.”
While the public health message focuses on BMI, medical professionals tend to look at a person’s physiological processes, they found — such as their ability to store excess energy as fat, deal with insulin and dietary sugar, and how well a person is is able to function metabolically – to diagnose obesity.
“Our environment throws so much food at us, but some people seem to be able to resist the temptation and stop eating once they’ve had enough to maintain their weight,” she said.
“But for other people, that just doesn’t seem to work — there’s something going on in the brain, something in the hormone levels.” It’s not a matter of willpower, it’s not a matter of making decisions. It’s on a much, much deeper level that we don’t really have complete control over.
“They get constant signals that they are hungry and they feel physical hunger all the time. They are constantly getting cues to eat and so they may respond by overeating.
“These are the people who need medical attention not to and these are the people with the disease.”
Working with the University of Galway, they conclude that excessive adiposity – or fat – alone was not enough to be considered a disease.
Instead, those with physiological problems that mean they can’t regulate appetite should be diagnosed with a disease, but it should be given an alternative name for obesity.
This would encourage those in need to seek help, according to findings presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Dublin.
She added: ‘We need to see the disease as something separate from the BMI category, because there is a connection between them, but they are not the same thing.
‘Not everyone who is fat has the disease – your target weight may be higher, but there is nothing pathologically wrong. Likewise, you can be thin and have the disease.”
The debate over whether obesity should be classified as a disease has raged for decades, with the World Health Organization classifying it as such since 1936, while the NHS continues to refer to it as a term used to describe “a person who has excess body fat’. ‘
Critics say that medicalizing obesity by viewing it as a disease rather than a consequence of behavior can be counterproductive.
Dr. Max Pemberton, psychiatrist and Daily Mail columnist, said it “removes personal responsibility and puts it on doctors.”
He compared it to alcoholism and smoking and said it’s part of a broader trend to medicalize aspects of our lives — to turn a behavior or choice into a disease.
But just as smoking is not considered a disease, obesity should be viewed in the same way, he insisted.
He said: ‘Overweight people who want to lose weight should be met with compassion and support. But we can be kind and caring to people who are struggling without claiming they have an illness.
‘Illness suggests there is an inevitability when it need not be.
‘There are generic components, just as there are genes that cause people to become addicted to smoking much faster than other people.
“But we wouldn’t classify smoking as a disease — it causes disease, but we understand it as a behavior in which we have a choice.”
“Even those who are genetically predisposed to gain weight are not slaves to their DNA.
“When we pathologize obesity, we fail to look at the complicated social factors at play and almost stop thinking about the legislation and policy changes that have been and could be made to address obesity.”
A weight-loss drug helps patients lose nearly a quarter of their body weight, according to a new analysis.
Tirzepatide, which is taken as a weekly injection, was tested in 2,539 overweight or obese adults who had at least one weight-related complication, not including diabetes. During a 72-week trial, those on the highest dose lost 23 percent of their body weight.
About 96 percent of people who took 15 mg lost 5 percent or more of their body weight.
About 63 percent in the 15 mg group lost a fifth or more of their body weight compared to 1 percent on placebo. The drug’s manufacturers, Eli Lilly and Co, are seeking approval from UK medical regulators to use tirzepatide in obese patients with at least one weight-related condition, such as diabetes or heart disease.