Cause or effect?

[chevtow]

I notice (especially on FB) that every other person has some syndrome, disease, etc. The one that got me thinking was a post today about Hashimotos. Because of obesity are people more likely to get these problems or are the problems helping to cause obesity??

Honestly I've never heard more sickly conditions and people until joining some of these support pages. I'm not being mean or insensitive just honestly want opinions. Am I just a lucky guy that didn't have any diseases other than obesity? I mean high BP and bad joints but nothing like the stuff these people have - it's like an episode of House, some of the stuff I've never even heard of.

Thoughts?

 

[southernlady]

It may be that we are more aware?

 

[Munchkin]

If you go to the doctor enough, you will eventually be diagnosed with something. The endgame is always mental, hypochondria. So the fast answer is you haven't gone to the doc enough times. Me neither.

For many diseases there are definitive tests. You either have it or you don't. But lots of other illnesses are a best guess scenario based on education and experience.

Over the decades I have run into a few people who delight in being ill because it makes them special(mental illness). And no matter how many problems you have, they can 'one up' you. And there are a few people out there who went to see docs until they got a diagnosis that would let them get disability. But the majority of people who say they have X, really do have X.

Interesting piece of anecdotal information... All the 'special' people I have known have been women. Never seen a guy even come close!

Ages ago there was a best selling book about the process of becoming a doctor through Internship and Residency. They had acronyms for the patients they saw over and over. 2 stuck with me all my life.

GOMER- Get out of my Emergency Room(nothing wrong with them).

LOLINAD- Little old lady in no actual distress.

And the worst troubles ensued when the GOMERS and LOLINADs showed up and THIS time they were really sick!

 

[DianaCox]

So, there are a lot of possible reasons:

People who have metabolic syndrome (a lot of the obese folks in the groups you're hanging out in?) have a constellation of disorders related to it, including type 2 diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, PCOS, cardiovascular issues, lymphedema, lipedema, thyroid issues, as well as obesity. So there's that.

The source of the metabolic disorder is not one thing - and could be autoimmune in nature. Autoimmune diseases, including type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, eczema, psoriasis, Hashimoto's, etc., can be related to each other - if you have one, you're more likely to have more than one. And they can make someone VERY ill.

When you have one kind of illness, you are more susceptible to other illnesses. And you end up in the doctor's office more frequently, where you're more likely to get diagnosed with something else - especially when you're looking for a reason for WHY you feel like crap.

 

[DSRIGGS]

FYI we know what a damn attention whore I am but from what I have read and a friend shared with me I am not sure that my thyroid isn't acting up on me. I am going to ask my pcp to order testing and possibly refer me to and endocrinologist.

 

[southernlady]

The source of the metabolic disorder is not one thing - and could be autoimmune in nature. Autoimmune diseases, including type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, eczema, psoriasis, Hashimoto's, etc., can be related to each other - if you have one, you're more likely to have more than one. And they can make someone VERY ill.

And autoimmune diseases can be genetic in nature. DH and a vast majority of his older family members have goiter (thyroid) or Hashimoto's. His eldest daughter is a type 1 diabetic with NO other known type 1's in the family. But thyroid and type 1 are closely related in the autoimmune tree.

 

[southernlady]

And the LIST of autoimmune diseases is staggering: http://www.aarda.org/autoimmune-information/list-of-diseases/

 

[hilary1617]

Certainly some of these conditions can lead to obesity. Hashimoto's is one. Cushing's is another. My son has both and experienced a doubling of weight and BMI within 18 months (went from 100 lbs to 200 lbs) with no explanatory changes in diet or exercise that led us to search for a medical cause...

Similarly, after being a normal weight throughout childhood and early adulthood, my obesity onset was with a spontaneous, unexplainable 100 pound gain in the course of a year with no change in diet or activity, that I am certain had a medical causes, perhaps related to the pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor found later....

 

[duh_Mom]

@Munchkin - Loved that book - "House of God" and
Gomers go to ground - so if you want to turf them to ortho put the bed up and rails down. . . .

 

[MegMac86]

It may be that we are more aware?

I totally agree... information is much easier to access nowadays.

 

[Munchkin]

@Munchkin - Loved that book - "House of God" and
Gomers go to ground - so if you want to turf them to ortho put the bed up and rails down. . . .

Buff and turf!!!

 

[Larra]

And the overwhelming majority of people having bariatric surgery are female, and autoimmune diseases are also much more common in females (though men do have them as well).

 

[KathrynK]

Neurological conditions and neurological medications contribut to obesity. The path to morbid obesity isn't the same for all of us.

 

[southernlady]

It's a similar argument to the one going around the diabetes groups...does diabetes cause obesity or does obesity cause diabetes.

I wasn't even close to obese/morbidly obese until I hit my 40's. I had been overweight since I was 12. I am now overweight again by 5 lbs...but it doesn't explain my diabetes returning. My last A1C was 7.4 (my PCP doesn't seem to be concerned and has just told me to watch carbs, well, DUH!!!!!) But it had been creeping up for the last 3 years. Was 6.4 6 months ago. IF IT stays up thru the next one, I will ask to be put back on insulin. Can't go back on an insulin pump as Medicare won't pay for the pump for type 2's. But I have no fear of going back to insulin to help my blood sugars. I suspect my diabetes started when I was 30 since I had peripheral neuropathy symptoms that far back. I just didn't fail the FASTING glucose test until 1997.

 

[MegMac86]

It's a similar argument to the one going around the diabetes groups...does diabetes cause obesity or does obesity cause diabetes.

I wasn't even close to obese/morbidly obese until I hit my 40's. I had been overweight since I was 12. I am now overweight again by 5 lbs...but it doesn't explain my diabetes returning. My last A1C was 7.4 (my PCP doesn't seem to be concerned and has just told me to watch carbs, well, DUH!!!!!) But it had been creeping up for the last 3 years. Was 6.4 6 months ago. IF IT stays up thru the next one, I will ask to be put back on insulin. Can't go back on an insulin pump as Medicare won't pay for the pump for type 2's. But I have no fear of going back to insulin to help my blood sugars. I suspect my diabetes started when I was 30 since I had peripheral neuropathy symptoms that far back. I just didn't fail the FASTING glucose test until 1997.

I'm so sorry!!! Diabetes is an awful disease. I wish you the best of luck!!!