Letter from Jess Meyers

Rich S. wrote:

wrote in message
...

Hmm, eat the right foods in moderation, don't snack on sugar filled
junk, don't drink carbonated sugar water (soda), excersize and you
will weigh what you should weigh for your height. This is news?

I remember a doctor being interviewed on 60 Minutes some five years
ago, he was a cardiologist and had studied obesity and obese people
and their eating/ excersize habits. He thought he knew how most
overweight people got that way. His radical revelation was that obese
people just ate too much, ate the wrong stuff and didn't excersize
enough. He shrugged, said "sorry, but it's really that simple." He
added that the percentage of folks who actually had some sort of
glandular problem causing them to be overweight was so miniscule, it
could hardly be tabulated.


Hmm.......... Perhaps it is him who is simple. Or outdated. I suggest
reading recent literature on gene effects of obesity. There is a good
layman's article in (IIRC) Reader's Digest last month on this subject. It is
more complicated than simply lack of will power or eating habits.

Rich "It ain't my fault!" S.
)



So you are saying that our genetics have changed dramatically in the
last 40 years? I don't buy it. Our rate of obesity has increased
dramatically in the lat 40 years, but I don't think we've mutated all
that much genetically. Then again, I'm not a geneticist... :-)


Matt

Matt Whiting wrote:

So you are saying that our genetics have changed dramatically in the
last 40 years? I don't buy it. Our rate of obesity has increased
dramatically in the lat 40 years, but I don't think we've mutated all
that much genetically. Then again, I'm not a geneticist... :-)

Matt

That's not quite correct - at least according to my doctor.
They call it Factor-X diabetes.

I have hardly any genetic risk for diabetes, but have developed
Type-1 anyway.

The cause is generally explained as the massive amount of sugar
and alcohol that have been introduced into our diets since about
1940 or so.

The doctor prescribed an oral med (Metformin HCL, in my case) and
over the first year I shed 50 pounds with very little change in diet
or activity. I'm now 196 pounds, which is not too bad at 6'3.

If you are overweight (and by media reports, most of us are seriously
so), might be wise to get screened for Diabetes.

Especially if your diet has included a lot of soda or alcohol...


Richard

On Fri, 09 Jul 2004 03:11:16 GMT, Richard Lamb
wrote:

Matt Whiting wrote:

So you are saying that our genetics have changed dramatically in the
last 40 years? I don't buy it. Our rate of obesity has increased
dramatically in the lat 40 years, but I don't think we've mutated all
that much genetically. Then again, I'm not a geneticist... :-)

Matt

That's not quite correct - at least according to my doctor.
They call it Factor-X diabetes.

I have hardly any genetic risk for diabetes, but have developed
Type-1 anyway.

type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease.
the beta cells in the pancreas are a type of secreting nerve cell
different from those around them. the immune system occasionally gets
it wrong and removes them.

in australia type 1 means no pilots licence but in the usa you have
about 250 pilots who manage the problem in flight so well through
continual monitoring that they have their licences.

amazing to see that after the hoover fiasco.

Stealth Pilot

"Stealth Pilot" wrote


in australia type 1 means no pilots licence but in the usa you have
about 250 pilots who manage the problem in flight so well through
continual monitoring that they have their licences.

amazing to see that after the hoover fiasco.

Stealth Pilot

I have a niece that has type one. It is amazing, the advances that have
been made. She has a pump that lets a controlled constant dose of insulin
into her body, then before every meal, she checks her blood, then calculates
what she will be eating, takes into account where her sugar level was, then
programs the pump to release just the amount needed for the meal. She is
almost always right on the right blood sugar level.
--
Jim in NC


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Richard Lamb wrote:

Matt Whiting wrote:

So you are saying that our genetics have changed dramatically in the
last 40 years? I don't buy it. Our rate of obesity has increased
dramatically in the lat 40 years, but I don't think we've mutated all
that much genetically. Then again, I'm not a geneticist... :-)

Matt


That's not quite correct - at least according to my doctor.
They call it Factor-X diabetes.

I have hardly any genetic risk for diabetes, but have developed
Type-1 anyway.

The cause is generally explained as the massive amount of sugar
and alcohol that have been introduced into our diets since about
1940 or so.

The doctor prescribed an oral med (Metformin HCL, in my case) and
over the first year I shed 50 pounds with very little change in diet
or activity. I'm now 196 pounds, which is not too bad at 6'3.

If you are overweight (and by media reports, most of us are seriously
so), might be wise to get screened for Diabetes.

Especially if your diet has included a lot of soda or alcohol...


Richard

I don't understand your point. You say I'm not correct, but then what
you say pretty much supports what I said, that it isn't genetics that is
to blame for our obesity problem in America.


Matt

Matt Whiting wrote:

Richard Lamb wrote:

Matt Whiting wrote:

So you are saying that our genetics have changed dramatically in the
last 40 years? I don't buy it. Our rate of obesity has increased
dramatically in the lat 40 years, but I don't think we've mutated all
that much genetically. Then again, I'm not a geneticist... :-)

Matt


That's not quite correct - at least according to my doctor.
They call it Factor-X diabetes.

I have hardly any genetic risk for diabetes, but have developed
Type-1 anyway.

The cause is generally explained as the massive amount of sugar
and alcohol that have been introduced into our diets since about
1940 or so.

The doctor prescribed an oral med (Metformin HCL, in my case) and
over the first year I shed 50 pounds with very little change in diet
or activity. I'm now 196 pounds, which is not too bad at 6'3.

If you are overweight (and by media reports, most of us are seriously
so), might be wise to get screened for Diabetes.

Especially if your diet has included a lot of soda or alcohol...


Richard

I don't understand your point. You say I'm not correct, but then what
you say pretty much supports what I said, that it isn't genetics that is
to blame for our obesity problem in America.

Matt

Sorry Matt.

I was just saying that I thought genetics have _not_ changed.
But I see that was your point as well.

Richard