Dear Mr. {*filter*},
I disagree with you on the funding of medical research for obesity.
Millions of Americans grapple with this disease each day of their
lives, only to be told to get rid of it by exercising "will-power".
Granted, people who are aging, with AIDS and cancer cannot "will"
away these diseases.  Obesity leads to many of the diseases that we
are currently spending limited medical funding on, namely heart
disease, diabetes and arthritis.

-*----
Someone said:

Physicians and other medical practitioners have harped so much on
linkages such as that between obesity and heart disease that some
people tend to view them as pure cause and effect.  This is a
mistake.  Some fat people will develop very little
artherosclerosis and some skinny people who exercise daily and who
eat a low fat diet and who follow all the other recommendations
will nonetheless die from coronary artery disease at a young age.
Rather than viewing artherosclerosis and coronary artery disease
as an end result of obesity, I think it is more accurate to view
it as a genetic disease that develops as people age and whose
development is *partly* modifiable by exercise and diet.

Of course, one cannot change one's genes (yet), so allegedly
controllable factors such as smoking, diet, and exercise loom
large in physicians' recommendations.  It may be that we can find
a cure for coronary artery disease.  But we cannot find a cure
for coronary artery disease *merely* by curing obesity.  The same
is true for other diseases, such as diabetes, for which obesity
is an aggravating factor.  

Russell

                        ..........................

                        ......................

The current evidence about type II diabetes, the most common type,
indicates that it is extremely rare unless obesity is present.
There is a current study (I have seen little about the results,
if any) on the Pima Indians, who have gone from a very low rate
to a rate in the neighborhood of 50% in the {*filter*} population.

Coronary artery disease does not seem to be quite that clear.
But if we could find a reasonable medical treatment for obesity,
which did not require people to punish themselves mentally, this
would be likely to eliminate well over 50% of many cardiovascular
problems, and probably at least 90% of type II diabetes.  That
there are other problems does not mean that obesity is not of
major importance.  It certainly deserves more than the piddling
amount being spent on it; a figure I saw for a recent year was
27 million dollars, probably less than $1 for each person who
went on an unsuccessful diet that year.
--
Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907-1399
Phone: (317)494-6054

{purdue,pur-ee}!snap.stat!hrubin(UUCP)

 I heard a report recently that your weight as a {*filter*}ager has
 a greater impact on the onset of coronary problems than your
 weight as an {*filter*}.  They say that obese {*filter*}agers tend to
 have a greater risk regardless of weight as an {*filter*}.

 (You hear this, parents?  Feed your kids 'right' from the
 start.)  ( I could shoot myself for all the eggs I ate as a kid.
 But back then, eggs were suppose to be 'health food' ;-) )

--

 From the beautiful and historic New York State Mid-Hudson Valley.

I think Herman is correct on this one, although you don't have
to be *really* obese to become diabetic if you have the family
history.  My father was no more than about 40 lbs overweight,
and he became diabetic.  Of course his extremely obese siblings
did so at a much earlier age.

--
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Gordon Banks  N3JXP      | "Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and

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