American Medical Association Now Recognizes Obesity as a Disease

Online, June 26, 2013 (Newswire.com) - The American Medical Association (AMA) has officially declared that 35.7 percent of Americans are sick. This declaration came about because they now recognize obesity as a disease. This move could change current reimbursement rules for obesity drugs, surgery and counseling.

The question of whether obesity is a disease or not is debatable because there is no universally agreed-upon definition of what constitutes a disease. The Obesity Society officially classified obesity as a disease in 2008. The IRS has ruled that some obesity treatments can qualify for tax deductions. Medicare removed language from its coverage manual saying obesity was not a disease in 2004, but Medicare Part D, the prescription drug benefit, does not pay for weight-oss drugs.

The decision is controversial because the vote of the AMA House of Delegates went against conclusions of the association's own Council on Science and Public Health which had been studying the issue over the last year. The council concluded that obesity should not be considered a disease mainly because BMI, which is the measure usually used to define obesity, is flawed.

"Some people with a BMI considered obese are perfectly healthy while others with a normal BMI can have dangerous levels of body fat and metabolic problems associated with obesity," say boomer generation health experts Dian Griesel, Ph.D., and Tom Griesel, authors of the books TurboCharged: Accelerate Your Fat Burning Metabolism, Get Lean Fast and Leave Diet and Exercise Rules in the Dust (April 2011, BSH) and The TurboCharged Mind (January 2012, BSH). "Given the limitations of using BMI as the indicator of obesity, it seems that recognizing obesity as a disease rather than a "condition" or "disorder" may not result in improved health outcomes."

SOURCE: http://turbocharged.us.com/35-7-of-americans-are-sick/

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