More O-BS-ity Madness

OK, OK...now that genetics is out as a cultural crutch for obesity, here goes something to quickly take its place.  Get this: Childhood obesity might be linked to the common cold virus.  Yes, yes, the common cold.  Not lifestyle behaviors, but a virus.  How's that for quick thinking?

A recent study to be published in the September 20 issue of Pediatrics showed that some children infected by adenovirus 36 (AD36), which causes the common cold and slight gastrointestinal upset, were an average of 50 pounds heavier than children who hadn't been infected by this particular strain.  The study, small and rife with coincidences, is the latest in "take-the-blame-off-the-patient" obesity hypotheses.

The study looked at 124 children between the ages of 8-18, with more than 50% (67 total) considered obese based on body-mass measurements for their age and gender, and found that nearly one in four obese children had been infected with AD36, compared to only 7% of non-obese children.  In total, the numbers are 15 and 4 respectively--this makes a study?  Further, within the entire group of obese children, those who were AD36-positive weighed about 35 pounds more than obese children who hadn't been infected with AD36.

I repeat, this makes a study?  Now granted, the authors do not claim to have proof, but I laugh at the absurdity of the notion from the start.  Why not study the link between biting one's fingernails and developing hemorrhoids?  Seriously.

OK, I get the rationale, but come on!  Whether or not, a child has been infected with adenovirus does not remove the necessity to watch the diet and to be active, plain and simple.

But we musn't blame people. Why the hell not?  Why perpetuate the ultimate problem: the lack of knowledge, understanding, discipline and responsibility?  Here's why.  Hypotheses lead to further studies, connections lead to rationales, and rationales lead to drug and vaccine development--think anti-depressants.  New drugs for epidemics means a shipload of money.  The public gets a new wonder drug, doctors get more business, and government gets to look like it supports the public health by endorsing poppycock.

So the rest of us get a good five years of having to hear how people are fat because they'd at one time caught a cold; a particular cold; a fat cold.  And we get to pay even more for their health care, because it's not their fault and everyone should be entitled to be an ignorant, irresponsible and undisciplined glutton.  We support you...literally.

Now before I get accused of being insensitive to obese people, remember, I'm the first to say be whatever you want to be.  I have nothing against obesity, ignorance, irresponsibility or a lack of discipline, because I know that everyone has these same characteristics somewhere in their lives.  In fact, I have said in this very blog and in my health articles that I am more an advocate for people loving who they are as they are, even if obese, as long as if they want to change, they take the responsibility to do so on their own.  No BS, no excuses, just take the leap and accept the glory and the blame.

But I do not support removing personal responsibility from one's physical health and well-being; and I definitely do not support the use of so-called science to find further reason to move the blame away from the individual.  To answer one of the study's authors, who thinks we should "move away from assigning blame, and broaden the way we think about obesity," I say, it help much less to give people another crutch to simply rationalize reality: It takes hard work and a drastic change in lifestyle to lose weight and keep it off.  You've got to cut the sodas, work out, and keep the overeating in check.

Trying to pass off the notion that obesity is somehow caused by exposure to the common cold is irresponsible, and in my mind, an obvious attempt at creating the next blockbuster drug.  It's a free market, yes--but will it change the world's obesity profile?  Fat chance.

Antibiotics for Viruses: Overprescribed and Useless

Something must be wrong with me--I love to see people squirm. Not just anybody, mind you, but mostly people who have lied, cheated, or acted hypocritically in one way or another. And I especially love to see it in people, or groups, that act arrogantly. C'mon, you know you love it too. We all get a sense of satisfaction when the chickens come home to roost, and these people have to squirm and lie some more to rationalize themselves. Pure comedy.

Take, for instance, the latest study to be published in the medical journal, The Lancet, which has reported that doctors routinely overprescribe antibiotics for viral infections. You don't say? Really? Wow. Seems like that same idea was reported right here in this blog back in October. According to the study, 80% of sinusitis (inflammation of the sinuses) cases in the U.S. are prescribed antibiotics despite the fact that the majority are due to the common cold virus. And just like I said in my October post: Antibiotics don't do diddly against viruses--they're meant exclusively to fight bacterial infections.

OK, here's the good part: The study's authors then attempt to explain the inordinate amount of antibiotics prescriptions by stating that when the patient has had the symptoms for a long time, doctors assume it's due to a bacterial infection....(Pause...silence)

Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha....what a joke. Do any of you buy that baloney? Let me tell you the real deal (and this information comes straight from a medical doctor who taught me in chiropractic college): Doctors prescribes medications at nearly every doctor's visit regardless of the situation because, and I quote, "the patient expects it". That's the truth in a nutshell: Doctors prescribe antibiotics full well knowing they're useless against viral infections, precisely because the patient expects something, not because it's the right thing to do, but because they know the patient wants it and will go somewhere else to get it. In other words, there ain't much of a market for non-prescribing M.D.s, period.

The only reason this study has come out at all is because of the explosion of antibiotic resistant bacteria that have penetrated our world, otherwise, trust me, the practice would continue. Antibiotic resistant bacteria is a growing and severely dangerous phenomenon. There is no longer time to play around, so now the medical community is asking how. But, unfortunately, you'll never get to the truth by hiding it, or in the case of these authors' conclusions, by asking the wrong questions.

I'm going to end this by being as fair as I can to my medical brothers and sisters--it's not totally their fault. Overprescribing antibiotics really is a consequence of what the public wants, and demands--like most things--and people really do yearn for a magic bullet. But what makes the medical clinician at least equally responsible is that they know better. It may be true that a medical business which doesn't prescribe medicines will soon have to close its doors; however, it may be time to start pushing a more health-responsible agenda, which would be to teach patients that their bodies have everything necessary to fight the common cold virus, and that antibiotics are unnecessary, and useless, in these cases. Still--I just love to see them squirm.

Don't You Just Hate When Mom is Wrong?

Just another blow to conventional wisdom: A review of 30 published studies confirms it even further - vitamin C does nothing to fight the common cold. I know, I know, that's not what Mom said. Take plenty of vitamin C along with chicken soup and you'll beat that cold in no time. Also, don't go out with your hair wet or without a jacket, you might catch cold. Didn't mom tell you that one, too?

Well, I hate to be the one to discredit Mom, but researchers at the University of Helsinki, Finland looked at people who took high-doses of vitamin C and found it did very little to reduce their risk of catching a cold (so small as to be clinically useless). Furthermore, it did nothing to reduce the duration of a cold or its symptoms.

That doesn't mean vitamin C is useless, though. As I point out in my upcoming book - The Six Keys to Optimal Health - this nutrient is absolutely essential to achieving and maintaining great health. Vitamin C is a natural antioxidant, so it fights oxidizing free radicals, which can lead to aging and the development of many degenerative diseases, like cancer. It's also an important player in the formation of collagen, so...that means healthy skin and healthy blood vessels and healthy joints and healthy ligaments and on and on and on. I think that vitamin C is so important that I believe, to have truly optimal health, you need to supplement with 1,000 mg per day.

But don't feel badly for mom. She's right about the chicken soup thing. I guess one out of two ain't bad, now, is it?