Chapter 11 Concerns-
If I could leave you with one thing I would see some studies on, it would be this:
I think we should do studies to determine whether or not gastric by-pass surgeries hurt the brain. I have not seen any studies, like fMRI’s that show before and after pictures of the brain. People don’t just loose fat, they lose muscle mass- and I suspect nerve cells. I have no way to validate my concerns, other than I know too many people who have had bypass surgeries that had no evidence of mental health problems suddenly having mental health problems. I have family that this seems true, but I have to rule my family out because they were nuts to begin with- I think it made it worse, but so does age. I wonder if the absence of studies is because someone is making money selling surgery as the option to the obesity epidemic.
Obesity is a problem. It’s a serious social problem, health crisis, and we need some answers. It’s also a complex problem. In our history of taking short cuts, rarely has this worked out in our favor. Gastric by-pass is a short cut that may be causing more problems than we care to know.
People in poverty tend to have higher rates of obesity. Why? Eating healthy is expensive. Keeping fresh foods, preparing fresh foods, takes time and energy. Most people take short cuts to get this need met. But it may not just be about food and lifestyle. It could also be about our own micro biology.
We don’t live in a vacuum. In this case, we are host to flora and fauna, and we can’t live without these creatures that live daily with us. We are absolutely dependent on healthy bacteria. Scientist discovered that there is particular bacteria that can affect weight. There were skinny mice that when they received bacteria from fat mice, they got fat. There were fat mice that were given the bacteria from skinny mice, and they became skinny.
This is apparently true for human. A woman with cancer was given a treatment, where all of her bacteria was killed and she received a fecal transplant from a family member. This woman was skinny all her life. The family member she received the transplant from was overweight. This woman survived her cancer, but was now facing weight problems that she had never had to struggle with before. This clearly indicated, it’s not just about life style. We need to realize weight is not as straight forwardly related to jus diet and exercise. There are biological, genetic, social, and other influencers- and if you seem someone overweight jump right to lazy, you’re also using a lazy way of categorizing human beings.
Does life style help? Of course! But healthy life styles requires a certain level of freedom that most people can’t afford. You may say they can’t afford otherwise, but if their income goes down because time or finances went to this- well, either we need to compensate people more, and or, give them more time to engage in healthy enterprises. When I was at the psych hospital, working three 12 hour shifts, I had time to go to yoga. I loved it. I now work 8 to 5, with a commute. Add family responsibilities on top of that…
Most doctors agree, proactive is better than reactive. Society mostly agrees with that. Are we waiting to see who will be the most proactive first?
I suck at cooking. I have been fortunate enough to have known some great cooks. I have eaten well. Left to my own devices, I will get by- but I am not eating optimum. Also, most of my meals are alone. There is good social evidence that people eat together are healthier. That seems to be very true for the French. They love their food, and they’re not skimping- they eat well. And they’re thin. If I spoke French, I think I would move there. I would probably still have a problem, not having the community- so still eating alone.
I can’t blame COVID for my present isolation. I struggled with loneliness most of my life. More of us are isolated than you may realize. Depression and loneliness are cousins, and they insert themselves into our lives in insidious ways. WHO puts depression and loneliness as likely to be the world’s greatest problem? Some of our tech may help us overcome, but at the moment it would seem as if tech is increasing our isolation. It may just be we’re not using tech wisely enough. It’s a shortcut. Relationships take effort. This book is tech, and it’s effort, and it’s me reaching out, to be helpful and to be helped. This is me seeking my voice. This is me looking for my community. I don’t know where this journey is taking me, but I am here. Hello. I hope this finds you well in your own journey.