Treating the Patient, Not the Weight
I was very excited to read all the thoughtful comments on my last blog post, Are Fat Doctors Just Human? When I wrote it, I intentionally left out many important points to keep the entry short. So, I’d like to follow up on one of the salient details that I omitted.
Weight is not the perfect indicator of health. There are many people who fall in the “healthy” weight range, according to their BMI, yet are very unhealthy. We all probably know a few folks who never exercise, eat greasy food all the time, smoke packs of cigarettes a day, and yet are perfectly slim. However, these people may have incredibly high cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, and a constant cough. Many people might see these thin folks and (perhaps subconsciously) think, “they must really care about their health.”
On the other hand, there are plenty of people who are “overweight” according to their BMIs, yet are in perfect health. Some people eat healthy foods, exercise regularly, and never smoke; yet they are always 10 or more pounds overweight. They may also have envious cholesterol levels, and perfectly normal blood pressures. Yet, when they walk down the street, people look at them and think, “they are fat, so they must not take care of themselves.” Many people mistakenly see overweight people and automatically assume that they live unhealthy lifestyles. While it’s true that some obese people do live unhealthy lives, automatically assuming that this is true for every overweight person creates a very unfortunate and unfair stereotype that overweight people must deal with all their lives.
Dealing with the social stigma of being overweight is hard enough. The last thing overweight patients need is a judgmental doctor who attributes their obesity to “not trying hard enough.” A good doctor understands that a person’s weight is the result of a complex set of variables, which in addition to eating habits and exercise, also includes their mental health, genetic makeup, family, culture, and even religious beliefs. A good doctor also considers a patient’s overall health, and looks much further than the person’s BMI in order to effectively treat them.
I believe that the difference between a mediocre doctor and an outstanding doctor is the ability to treat the whole patient. Weight is simply one component of an individual’s health. Good doctors should consider the entire elaborate combination of factors that make each person unique. If doctors can treat the patient, instead of just treating the weight (or the disease), I believe that they will be able to make a much more significant impact on their patients’ overall mental and physical health.
My name is Kendra and I am a fourth-year medical student attending