this post was submitted on 11 May 2025
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[–] gaja@lemm.ee 162 points 2 days ago (5 children)

Got a lot to say but I'll keep it brief-ish. Corporations love unhealthy people. They will artificially celebrate this and reinforce unhealthy lifestyles. This extends beyond weight.

Once entrapped, escape is hard. Some are passive and depressed. Some are dismissive and defensive. No matter which cycle you are in, it's unhealthy.

I think smoking is bad like I think being overweight is bad. If a doctor says alcohol is killing you, it probably is. I don't think hatred is deserved, but don't expect any validation for those choices.

[–] PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 73 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Surely no coincidence that being obese is a gateway to hyperconsumerism anyway. Sugary, fatty, processed snack foods are way more profitable than healthy meals.

Walking around town is free, can't have that. Sit at this computer chair, watch advertisements and play video games instead.

Heart disease at 26? That'll be $2k/month until you die.

Get depressed, buy the meds, never leave your couch, don't fight back, you're the evolution of humanity and - most of all - you are beautiful.

[–] toadjones79@lemm.ee 37 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I am down 50+ pounds, and have another 20 to go. This is new to me, but I absolutely agree with everything you said.

[–] KombatWombat@lemmy.world 1 points 20 hours ago

Congratulations, that's really impressive!

[–] Irelephant@lemm.ee 30 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (7 children)

The meme isn't about that, I've read stories of some doctors refusing to perform surguries to overweight people, but other doctors doing the surgery anyway.

The same way a lot of women get told stuff is just from their period by doctors.

[–] ZeffSyde@lemmy.world 2 points 12 hours ago

My mother had a doctor that refused to move forward with knee surgery because she was so depressed and refused to do therapy because it hurt her knee so much to move around.

I guess I understand, why go through the trouble of surgery if she's just going to be a bummer couch potato afterwards and never change her ways?

But at least she'd be a bummer couch potato whose knee didn't threaten to give out on her whenever she tried to do laundry in the basement.

If I take my car in for new brake pads, don't refuse me service because the transmission is on its way out.

[–] medgremlin@midwest.social 95 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I'm a medical student and I have some direct experience with this. Sometimes, the difference between the surgeon who will do the procedure versus the surgeon that won't do the procedure is the availability of specialized facilities and equipment that they have access to. An elective surgery (i.e. not an emergency surgery) can go from routine to very high risk depending on the amount of adipose tissue the patient has.

And it's not just a matter of the fat tissue overlying the surgical site. Morbidly obese patients are much more likely to have things like sleep apnea which can make anesthesia more risky and might require more specialized equipment than a particular surgeon/hospital/anesthesiologist might have access to. The "morbid" part of "morbid obesity" also refers to the fact that people above a certain threshold of weight are much more likely to have other health conditions like heart disease that make anesthesia more risky.

[–] uselessRN@lemm.ee 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This is what I came to say but wasn't smart enough to put into words. There's a lot more factors than just being overweight of why a surgery can't be performed. For a while an issue at my hospital was we were one of the few in the area that could do MRIs on larger patients. So bigger hospitals would transfer these patients to us just for an MRI because their MRI machine was too small or couldn't handle the weight.

[–] medgremlin@midwest.social 11 points 1 day ago

There's a reason you have to get a pre-op physical exam for any non-emergent surgery. Figuring out if you'll wake up from the anesthesia at all is part of the calculus that determines whether the benefits of the procedure outweigh the risks.

[–] Irelephant@lemm.ee 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Would a surgeon unable to do it refer the patient to one who is capable?

[–] medgremlin@midwest.social 15 points 1 day ago

Sometimes. It depends why the first surgeon would be unable to do the procedure. If the problem is that the patient might not wake up from anesthesia because of problems with heart disease, lung problems, or other metabolic issues, then it doesn't really matter what the surgeon has to say about actually doing the procedure because the anesthesiologist is the one saying "no". If it's an issue of too much adipose, sometimes it would mean that the surgery would take longer than it's safe for the patient to be under anesthesia.

Another possibility is that the first surgeon operates at a facility that doesn't have access to more advanced technologies or other medical specialists in the event that something goes wrong. And there are some surgeons that are just more willing to accept the risk of a bad outcome, and I would argue that that's rarely in the patient's best interest. There are alternative options that the surgeon should discuss with the patient as part of the informed consent process, and sometimes, the alternatives to surgery are just safer than the risk of the surgery itself, even if they aren't as effective or are a long term treatment (ongoing) as opposed to a definitive treatment (cure). If the patient has a high risk of serious complications, up to and including death, then attempting the curative procedure might be more risk than it's worth compared to a long term medication that mitigates the disease.

You'll see this with pregnant patients too. For elective procedures that have safer alternatives or temporizing measures (a holdover treatment until surgery is safe), those are generally preferred to putting a pregnant patient under anesthesia because of all the cardiovascular, immunologic, and other physiologic changes that happen during pregnancy alongside potential risks to the fetus.

[–] ChairmanMeow@programming.dev 46 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The reason for that is that surgeons are rated based on their success percentages meaning they'll recommend against risky surgeries.

The upside of this is that surgeons aren't operating willy-nilly on people and will make a proper risk assessment. The downside is that overweight people have an inherently higher risk of complications from surgery, so some surgeons will pass.

It's not because they think these people don't need it, it's because they think it's too risky. They're usually not wrong about that, you just need to find a surgeon willing to take the risk or, if possible, reduce the risk by losing weight.

[–] Fogle@lemmy.ca 11 points 2 days ago (2 children)

There's also no point to surgeries if the people aren't committed and are just going to eat even more and put the weight back on. It's like consolidating debt to make one payment easier but keeping all the credit cards and building up the debt again. It just makes you worse off

[–] kkj@lemmy.dbzer0.com 28 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

That depends on the surgery. Gastric bypass notoriously has weight requirements, but a gallbladder removal can still kill you if you're too fat, and there definitely is a point to doing that even if the patient isn't going to change their diet.

[–] albert180@piefed.social 3 points 1 day ago

That's why where I am from you usually need a clearance from a psychiatrist that there are no psychological issues in eating habits that would render that surgery useless, before the surgeon is allowed to do it

[–] gaja@lemm.ee 29 points 2 days ago (14 children)

Look. Shitty doctors exist, but when 1/3 of the US is overweight, there are underlying issues that need addressing. I only hear horror stories when an addict, alcoholic, or overweight individual in my life is feeling insecure or defensive about a prognosis. Too many people deflect and it's enabling a much larger issues. Our basic instincts are being exploited.

[–] Irelephant@lemm.ee 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I know, I'm not arguing for obesity, that would be stupid.

[–] prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 day ago

Well someone’s gonna have to

[–] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 10 points 2 days ago

Look. Shitty doctors exist …

Yes. They're in the meme.

[–] geekgrrl0@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I have some horror stories about being a normal weight woman seeking medical care. What's that about then?

[–] Lv_InSaNe_vL@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Different issues have different causes.

[–] geekgrrl0@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 day ago

I don't know, the medical community ignoring fat people's health concerns (beyond obesity) and ignoring women's health concerns, seem to be the same issue and I posit they are the same cause too (hubris, arrogance, and just simply not living up to their oath)

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[–] HollowNaught@lemmy.world 20 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

When talking about obese individuals, the fat very easily gets in the way of surgery. Compared to a healthy patient the risk of complications during surgery is much greater and really not worth chancing it (most if the time)

[–] andros_rex@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago

Similarly - if you are trans and on HRT, every problem is due to your hormones.

[–] Cypher@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I’m guessing that’s under the US health system, where doctors are incentivised to only perform surgeries with a low risk of complications

[–] medgremlin@midwest.social 4 points 1 day ago

For a lot of doctors, the incentive to not do risky procedures is the fact that you have to live with the guilt of your patient's death, even if you did everything perfectly. Or, you do everything perfectly, but they still have a poor outcome because they weren't healthy enough to go through the procedure and the recovery, and you get sued for millions of dollars because you didn't spend 4 hours going through the informed consent with the patient to ensure that every single possible complication was adequately discussed.

I've worked in emergency medicine and I've had patients die in my care that we had absolutely no way of saving. The screams of their families still haunt me and I will carry those cries of anguish and loss to my grave. I would not perform a procedure that was not 1000000% necessary if the risks are too high because I have enough blood on my hands already, and I haven't even finished medical school.

[–] Lv_InSaNe_vL@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

What countries medical system encourages risky surgeries? As far as I'm aware "reducing risk" is most of the game in medicine