Associate professor of emergency medicine, Dr. Jeremy Brown for 15 years, tip toed around the topic of obesity with patients.

Recently, however he has had a change a heart. He has noticed, like us, how doctors are doing a great disservice by not directly addressing obesity with patients.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/23/AR2008052302434.html

QUOTE:
Obesity is not only about health risks, which include diabetes, joint pain, congestive heart failure, strokes, back pain, sleep apnea, depression, infertility and erectile dysfunction. It is also about the root causes and our society's denial of the woeful impact obesity is having on Americans' health.

Tell 'em Doctor Brown!!!!

I hope he gives constructive advice. Often doctors, when working with overweight or obese patients, they'll just tell them to lose weight (I'm pretty sure they know they're already fat ) without expanding on how, or they'll prescribe a dangerous crash diet plan or pills.
Believe or not, some people really don't have a lot of information on how to lose weight and keep it off.
Changing your entire lifestyle can be daunting!

So good on the doc if he can actually help.

This guy is the author of the Oxford Guide to emergency medicine, I'm pretty sure he knows what he is doing. Of course Emergency room visits are extremely limited as far as time.

They probably do know they are fat...

But it is wrong to let a patient go home thinking that they have a health condition that isn't caused by being overweight, when in fact losing weight would help.

Also what the fa movement miss/ignore is that its the doctors job to let you know EVERYTHING that is wrong when you visit, not just what you go in for if there are other things wrong.

If you in for a sore throat and they find you also have an ear infection, they tell you, not think 'well they came in with a sore throat, so i won't tell them about their ear'.

So if someone is obese and they go in, of course the doctor will mention it if it is going to cause them problems and nothing is currently being done, just like they would if anything else was wrong.

The problem is that the fa movment are taking fat as an identity rather then tissue that (way)too much of causes harm, so any mention of losing fat is seen as trying to change that identity, making it like racism in their eyes.

And the don't see how a doctor mentioning it can mean anything other then hate.

Doctors are getting to a point where they can't win.

Mention it and they can get sued, no matter how kindly they put it.

But if the person dies from obesity related illness, the first questions are likley to be 'who was their doctor and why didn't they mention this?', and get sued that way instead.

Its the doctors job to get you better, and not just from what you went in there to ask about if they find other problems too (and not all because of trying to push pills. There are those who do and those who don't. A good doctor is one who does what you need to get better, not one who just does the pill thing where no medication is needed OR one who just tells a patient what they want to hear because the patient doesn't want to believe weight is a problem. However as many in the fat movement think the latter is exactly what a good doctor is, complaints of bias will continue).

Its sort of annoying reading posts of 'fat bias in the doctors office' articles and reading that all the doctor did was mention their weight and that it will be causing them problems.

Some have said it in meaner ways, and of course that isn't helpful.

But theres a differance between a doctor being cruel when pointing something out, and saying a doctor is cruel IF they point it out, because if something is going to damage your health, they need to point it out.

We have had many visitors here on this site that were very fat, and told us that their doctor never mentioned, that they were fat, to them once.

Additionally sometimes it carries more weight if a medical professional tells you. I'm good about flossing for a couple months after a Dentist visit, then I start slacking. For some reason when the dentist scolds me about it carries more weight.

It has been my experience that doctors soft step around the weight issue. My OS now has had 2 ruptured disk, neck surgury, cortozone shots and soon her knees will deteriorate. All she gets from her doc is a casual "it would help if you lost some weight". He does not insist on it or present it as a critical issue in her health.

My HS gifts his doctor with a nice bottle of wine every Christmas season! They have a cozy relationship. Don't get me wrong, I like the guy. We live in a small town on the Pacific coast, everybody knows everyone, and early on when my guy would accompany me on long beach walks, we once ran into his doctor walking his dog. He is tall and fit himself, and was thrilled to see his patient getting some exercise. In the years since he has expressed concern, but he sugar coats it. I think it would be far more effective were he to say it straight out, "you're going to die soon if you don't knock it off".

My husband complained about heartburn (and the belching and farting) so the doc gave him a script for Nexium. He went for sleep apnea and the godawful snoring, and they sent him for a sleep study. Why on earth don't these people tell him he's over 300 lbs,and the first thing he needs to do is lose weight? They are, literally, ignoring the elephant in the room!I even spoke to his doc in advance of his visit, asking him to talk to hubby about his weight. Either he wimped out, or hubby ignored him.

I guess it really depends on the doctor. My dad was diagnosed with diabetes about six months ago, and his doctor said, look, I've been telling you for years you need to lose some weight, and you've always gone yeah yeah I know, but haven't done anything about it.

So now you have diabetes, and you have a choice: you can either lose the weight now, or in a few years, you can come back and I'll have to cut your legs off, and you'll lose some weight that way. Harsh, but it actually seemed to get through... he immediately lost and has kept off about 25 pounds. He could stand to lose more, but its better then he's been able to manage in the past.

Surprised no one sued your dads doc for speaking the truth.