FLUS, SARS, WMDS

June 5, 2003 9:16 AM

Fat Lazy Unsafe Smokers=FLUS CDC Official says obesity is closing in on tobacco as leading cause of death in U.S. "We just recalculated the actual causes of death in the U.S. and we did see that obesity moved up very close to tobacco, and is almost the number one health threat," Julie Gerberding said. Her work in an emergency unit revealed many tobacco-related cases along with some involving failure to wear seat belts and helmets. There were no cases linked to bioterrorism. Hmmm, you mean I should just keep brushing my teeth, eat right, exercise, buckle up, etc. How boring.
posted by newlydead (20 comments total)

"Attention people of MetaFilter. We have a confirmed obesity thread and are now at flamewar alert code orange, I repeat, code orange."
posted by Shadowkeeper at 9:21 AM on June 5, 2003

Troll!
posted by Red58 at 9:22 AM on June 5, 2003

Not to actually contribute to what may be one of the laziest, most confused posts in weeks, but --

A friend of mine who worked in ICUs and ERs said the going acronym is HONDA: hypertensive, obese, non-compliant, diabetic and alcoholic. Of course, we're talking real end-of-game types with that profile, the kind that took many units of fluids, tons of medicines and months of expensive care at the end of their lives.

So let's blame the HONDAs.
posted by argybarg at 9:33 AM on June 5, 2003

It's not that being fat kills people, is that with something like Type II Diabetes, usually caused by being overweight, more people die because of related issues (heart & stroke) than what you can nail down. When the obesity rate and the numbers for Type 1 & 2 skyrocket enough that one of the major soft drink brand will devote at least a quarter of their ad dollars addressing obesity, then it's definitely a problem.
posted by mkelley at 9:51 AM on June 5, 2003

"It's not being fat kills people"

Right. And it's not the fall from a tall building kills you. It's the impact.
posted by five fresh fish at 10:01 AM on June 5, 2003

"We just recalculated the actual causes of death in the U.S. and we did see that obesity moved up very close to tobacco, and is almost the number one health threat," Julie Gerberding said.

Ok, let see, how long have folks smoked tobacco & been gluttons to food?...beginning of it's history. Where are those #'s. Maybe it's the times...chemicals found in the product.
posted by thomcatspike at 10:12 AM on June 5, 2003

Ok, let see, how long have folks smoked tobacco & been gluttons to food?...beginning of it's history.

The majority of the population has very rarely been in a position to be gluttonous; food has only become a cheap & abundant commodity in recent times.

shouldn't it be WMD-little s in the title thingy there? Or is this some syndrome you're naming...
posted by mdn at 10:31 AM on June 5, 2003

It's important to get the weight off before you get older, because the older you are, the more impact it has on your life.

Believe me, I know this first hand, being an overweight person myself. But I'm working my way down, 21 pounds so far, with plenty more to go.

But guess what? It's not motivating people to just scream "you fat piece of crap go on a diet". Imagine that. So support a fat person today. Offer some good information, and your support. It will make their day, and move them on towards losing those excess pounds.
posted by benjh at 10:42 AM on June 5, 2003

thomcatspike: people were to busy dying of polio, typhode, the plauge, gout, starvation, and bands of marauders.

They basicaly wouldn't make it to the age where smoking and fatness could cause death.
posted by delmoi at 10:44 AM on June 5, 2003

This is a pretty bad article. Nobody dies directly from obesity, so I'd really like to know what they consider to be an obesity-caused death. I also like the uncalled-for political commentary in Gerberding's statement, as if worrying about the threat of bioterrorism somehow makes people think that they're exempt from cancer.
posted by transona5 at 10:46 AM on June 5, 2003

and months of expensive care at the end of their lives.

No worries: "the government" pays for it all.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 10:50 AM on June 5, 2003

gout
Thought this was a result of eating rich foods. When I said beginning of history I was starting with 1780's. I was looking at my old retaliatives as examples. Yet I don't find this to be a new revelation.
posted by thomcatspike at 11:34 AM on June 5, 2003

Gout is the accumulation of urea crystals in the fluid of the joints, and the resulting pain and inflammation and if untreated eventual infection and, I suppose, death. You get it by drinking too much, thereby overloading the kidneys' ability to scour uric acid from the blood.

Kids, if you drink a lot of booze on a hot day, drink a lot of water before bed. I know gout sounds like something Henry VIII got and you don't need to worry about, but I had it a couple of years ago, and it hurt as though my toe was broken.
posted by nicwolff at 11:56 AM on June 5, 2003

...the plauge, gout, starvation, and...

One of my all-time favorite TV memories is from an episode of Dukes of Hazzard where Cletus queries Boss Hogg about his absent wife's whereabouts:

Cletus: Where's Lulu, Boss?

BH: She's laid up with the gout from eatin' them pickled pig snouts.



Magnifique
posted by dhoyt at 12:09 PM on June 5, 2003

if you drink a lot of booze on a hot day

nicwolff Thanks as your explanation tells me why the person I know with it, lied to me.
posted by thomcatspike at 12:48 PM on June 5, 2003

or maybe nicwolff is just misinformed
posted by stefanie at 12:53 PM on June 5, 2003

I heard an interesting comment the other day. "Smoking creates cardiopulmonary problems in 1 out of every 4 heavy smokers. It does *not* do so in the other 3 out of 4."

Now, whether or not this is true, it does bring up an interesting point: when someone wants to coerce you to something that *they* think is good for you, at what point to you tell them to mind their own business? You, personally?

And wouldn't it be nice if it was the LAW that people HAD to mind your own business? That, if it's not their body or their property, they HAD to butt out if you asked them?

I wonder if such a place ever existed.
posted by kablam at 12:58 PM on June 5, 2003

Doesn't this mean that natural selection is working, and soon we will have a super-race of hard-smoking, hard-drinking fat-bottomed-girls running the world? Meanwhile the rest of us will be killed off by the huge amounts of caffiene and tobacco they're going to pump into the water supply to keep us weak and listless?

it's just a thought...
posted by blue_beetle at 1:54 PM on June 5, 2003

soon we will have a super-race of hard-smoking, hard-drinking fat-bottomed-girls running the world?

That'd make my rockin' world go round.
posted by inpHilltr8r at 3:23 PM on June 5, 2003

So support a fat person today.

I can't. I have a bad back.

[drum sting]

sorry, sorry, i just couldnt' resist!
posted by five fresh fish at 8:09 PM on June 5, 2003