Russell Turpin writes:
>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.