THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION HAS DECIDED OBESITY IS A “DISEASE,” EVEN THOUGH THAT DOESN’T REALLY MEAN MUCH
——Yesterday, at their annual meeting in Chicago, the American Medical Association decided to officially recognize obesity as a disease.“Recognizing obesity as a disease will help change the way the medical community tackles this complex issue that affects approximately one in three Americans,” Dr. Patrice Harris, a member of the association’s board, said in a statement.Thanks, Dr. Harris! OK, so let’s unpack this one suitcase at a time.What does it mean to recognize something as a disease?It turns out, not much. As the NYT article above points out, there is no single medical definition of what “counts” as a disease. Surprising but true! Merriam-Webster calls a disease “a condition of the living animal or plant body or of one of its parts that impairs normal functioning and is typically manifested by distinguishing signs and symptoms” but that’s kind of broad when you get down to trying to pinpoint what IS disease and what isn’t.Is a deviated septum a disease? Lactose intolerance? Mental illness? If I burn my dominant hand really badly, am I now “diseased”? Or just injured? What’s the difference between injury and disease? Because by the dictionary definition above they could be the same thing in a lot of cases. A “condition” could be BASICALLY ANYTHING, after all. Hell, by this reckoning, pregnancy could be a disease.This is probably why medical authorities have never uniformly agreed on a single definition. Of course, on a social and cultural level, we don’t think of pregnancy, or many other conditions that might “impair normal functioning,” as diseases. We think of diseases as sicknesses. Bad stuff. Gross stuff, sometimes. Unpleasantness. The word has profound social connotations in public discourse. Not so much in medicine, which deals in disease as a matter of course.All of that said, the AMA’s declaration of obesity as a new disease is mostly symbolic, as they have no legal control over how obesity is understood or treated in the medical field as a whole. So really, their recognition doesn’t mean much…
15 amazing things in nature you won’t believe actually exist
(via crossedstirrups)
i work at home depot and yesterday i decided to pick up some possible paint colors for future living arrangements and loved this swatch
especially this one
which once you crop it comes out to be this color online
and i kept wondering…where have i seen that color before when it dawned on me.
you can never truly leave
(via diaryofajuniorhunter)
do boys even get crushes on girls do boys even like girls do boys even feel things
(via diaryofajuniorhunter)
Slytherin will help you on your way to greatness.
(Source: allinye, via teenwolfitude)
babies cry because they know how much debt they’re going to be in once they graduate from college
(via diaryofajuniorhunter)
when I was little, I went through a phase where I’d wear my Spiderman costume under all my clothes, so I wore it for about 3 years straight and my mom never found out until one day when we were at a family party, I was wearing the costume under a really fancy and expensive dress, and someone started choking on something so I ripped off the dress to reveal the costume to try and save them, and I think my mom just about had a heart attack
(via diaryofajuniorhunter)
punks not dead
Heosemys spinosa is an endangered species.
punks almost dead
(Source: sinyasiki, via crossedstirrups)
have u ever accidentally befriended someone who is very very irritating
#the best part is #you dont know #if mccoy is talking about spock #if spock is talking about mccoy #or if theyre both talking about kirk
(via crossedstirrups)
