this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2023
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My former cardiologist kept grilling me to lose weight, laughing in my face when I told him I was really active at work but still gaining. Turns out I was retaining water because the heart failure he blamed on my weight was a genetic defect that a few years later required a transplant.
Due to unrelated circumstances, I moved states between my last visit with him and the discovery of how much worse my condition was or I definitely would have had words with him.
You may want to file a complaint with the medical licensing board of that state though. While nothing will probably happen because of it, it may make him think twice the next time before he is so dismissive.
That, in itself, is a significant issue. Obesity IS a health problem but it is not treated as one or taken seriously. Instead those who are sick with obesity are shamed, belittled, and dismissed. More and more research is showing that, often, it isn't just because of people "being lazy" and having poor dietary self-control. There are significant genetic, microbiome, and other biological variations that appear strongly correlated and likely causitive.
Turns out that, like telling a person with cancer to "walk it off" or an adult with ADHD to "just apply themselves", the approach of not actually treating obesity, a known medical issue with all of the qualifying criteria of a disease, including increased risk of premature death and becoming sick with other diseases, as though it is a medical issue isn't very effective.
I cannot express how deeply this cuts. After taking stims for the first time at 36, I felt like I finally woke up. For the first time ever I felt as though I was present and capable of carrying through with basic tasks.
Not to say I was entirely helpless. I was (and still am) a senior developer with a highly successful track record. But the difference in mental energy to complete even the simplest of life's tasks was monumental.
I've been told ad nauseum in highschool "you have so much potential, you just need to concentrate/try harder", when I was trying to give 110% every single day.