Section 2 of 2 - Prev - Next

  A5-17)     Thyroid Problems

The thyroid gland is located in the neck, just below the Adam's apple.
This produces thyroid hormone. Too much thyroid being produced
is hyperthyroidism; too little is hypothyroidism.

Symptoms of hyperthyroidism (not all are necessarily experienced)
include weight loss, a fast pounding heartbeat, frequent bowel movements,
inability to sleep, nervousness, muscle weakness and fine tremors
of the fingers and tongue.

Symptoms of hypothyroidism (not all are necessarily experienced)
include weight gain, tiredness, depression, feeling run-down,
skin/hair/nails may grow more slowly and be more brittle, constipation,
anemia, fatigue, loss of appetite, irregular or absent menstrual periods,
swollen ankles, puffiness about the face, elevated cholesterol and, possibly,
hypertension. To put it succinctly, the metabolism is just not working
fast enough.

Thyroid problems are fairly common, but not everyone with them has
been diagnosed. It is estimated that at least 6 or 7 million Americans are
hypothyroid. Hypothyroidism is 4 times more common in women than in men.
Although a small proportion of large people do have thyroid problems,
not every large and/or tired person has a thyroid problem.

Diagnosis of hypothyroidism is by a simple blood test, and treatment
is with tablets of levothyroxine, a synthetic thyroid hormone.

More information can be found on-line, for example at the on-line service
provided by the Santa Monica Thyroid Diagnostic Center
(URL is http://www.thyroid.com/ ).

  A5-19)     Varicose Veins

Varicose veins are those that bulge out. They are hereditary, but can
be exacerbated by excess pressure, eg high weight, constant standing
(nurses and waitresses are notorious for them) and pregnancy.
They do not go away if you lose weight, although if you do lose weight,
it might (or might not) stop more from forming.

There are surgical and non-surgical ways of getting rid of them.
The most common nonsurgical way involves injecting a saline solution
into the vein.  It then closes up (the blood flow goes through other veins).
You then have to wear a bandage around it for six weeks or so, so that it
doesn't pop out again.
Support stockings may help comfort-wise, although they might not
prevent more from forming.


  A5-20)     Yo-Yo Dieting

Some relevant references include [EH], [DBSJ], [NE], [Hay], [Ha+].
Particularly the second, as it's often cited (wrongly) as a study showing
the dangers of obesity.


--------------------------------------------------------------------

A6)     Are there any health advantages to being fat?

These lists are taken from [EH]:

  A6-1)      Diseases less prevalent amongst fat people

Anaemia
Atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis
Bronchitis (chronic)
Cancer:
     overall incidence,
     overall mortality,
     colon cancer,
     lung cancer,
     pre-menopausal,
        breast cancer,
     stomach cancer,
Diabetes type I
Eclampsia
Hip fracture
Hot flashes
Infectious diseases (overall fatalities)
Intermittant claucidation
Meningioma
Mitral valve prolapse
Obstructive pulmonary disease (chronic)
Osteoporosis
Peptic Ulcer
Premature birth
Premature menopause
Reno-vascular hypertension due to fibromuscular hyperplasia
Scoliosis
Suicide
Tuberculosis
Urinary tract infection
Vaginal laceration
Vertebral fracture

  A5-2)      Diseases where fat people have a better prognosis

Diabetes type II
Hypertension
Hyperlidemia
Rheumatoid arthritis

--------------------------------------------------------------------

A7)     Are there any informative web pages on health for fat people?

Yes, several. Some are fatphobic, others not.

Here's a topical (as of Jan 1998) article from the NEJM:

 -> http://www.nejm.org/public/1998/0338/0001/0052/1.htm

Sharon Curtis (the maintainer of this FAQ) also maintains some pages entitled
Health Information about Fatness, which can be found at

http://www.comlab.ox.ac.uk/oucl/users/sharon.curtis/BF/Inf/main.html

These pages offer information straight from research articles about how
fatness relates to health.

The Medical Sciences Bulletin has a page which focuses on obesity:

http://pharminfo.com/pubs/msb/obesity.html

Although it refers to obesity as a chronic disease, it does contain a lot of
useful information and common sense. It tackles several common misconceptions
about obesity and considers the social implications too.


There is also a page for AHELP (Association for the Health Enrichment
of Larger People), at

http://www.nrv.net/~ahelp/


--------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------


SECTION B: Information about this FAQ

B1)     Are there other related FAQs?

Yes. The list of them below can be found from the following page:

http://www.comlab.ox.ac.uk/oucl/users/sharon.curtis/BF/SSFA/faqs.html


  fat-acceptance-faq/clothing/canada
        information about clothing for large people in Canada
  fat-acceptance-faq/clothing/europe
        information about clothing for large people in Europe
        (excluding the United Kingdom)
  fat-acceptance-faq/clothing/uk
        information about clothing for large people in the UK
  fat-acceptance-faq/clothing/us
        information about clothing for large people in the US
  fat-acceptance-faq/health
        information about health issues affecting large people
  fat-acceptance-faq/research
        information about research concerning large people
  fat-acceptance-faq/maternity
        information about large-size maternity resources
  fat-acceptance-faq/sports
        information about resources for sports and activities
        for large people
  fat-acceptance-faq/fitness
        information about resources for fitness for large people
  fat-acceptance-faq/organizations
        information about organizations for large people
  fat-acceptance-faq/resources
        information about resources for large people (that aren't
        covered in the other resources FAQs)
  fat-acceptance-faq/physical
        information about resources for dealing with the physical
        aspects of being large
  fat-acceptance-faq/publications
        information about publications for large people
  fat-acceptance-faq/size-acceptance
        information about size-acceptance
  big-folks-faq
        general information file for alt.support.big-folks

There is some overlap in the topics covered by the FAQs. If you don't
find what you're looking for here, try the other FAQs.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

B2)     Posting information

This document is posted monthly to news.answers and alt.answers and
posted bi-weekly to soc.support.fat-acceptance and alt.support.big-folks.
Sharon Curtis (sharon@comlab.ox.ac.uk) maintains this FAQ.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

B3)     Availability of the FAQ

All FAQs posted to news.answers are archived at rtfm.mit.edu and its
mirror sites.  You can get any of these FAQs from rtfm.mit.edu via
anonymous FTP or via the mail archive server.  (To get information
about the mail server, send email to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with the
body of the message containing the word "help", without the quotes.)
FAQs posted to news.answers are also available on the Web from:

http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/top.html
http://www.cs.ruu.nl/cgi-bin/faqwais

You can find this FAQ at the following URLs:

ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/fat-acceptance-faq/health
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/fat-acceptance-faq/health/faq.html
http://www.cs.ruu.nl/wais/html/na-dir/fat-acceptance-faq/health.html

although the latest version specifically adapted for HTML and maintained
by the maintainer can be found at

http://www.comlab.ox.ac.uk/oucl/users/sharon.curtis/BF/health_FAQ.html

--------------------------------------------------------------------

B4)     Contributors

These are the people who contribute significant chunks to the FAQ.

Sharon Curtis           (Sharon.Curtis@comlab.ox.ac.uk)
Sasha Wood              (Sasha.Wood@cs.cmu.edu)
Largesse                (75773.717@compuserve.com)
Elly Jeurissen          (obistat@plex.nl)

Also, lots and lots of other people (too many to credit) contributed
information that appears herein, some via email and some on s.s.f-a or
a.s.b-f.  Thanks to them all.

Suggestions for additions/improvements are always welcome.

Copyright 1995 by Sharon Curtis (Sharon.Curtis@comlab.ox.ac.uk).
Permission is granted to copy and redistribute this article in its
entirety for non-commercial use provided that this copyright notice is
not removed or altered.  No portion of this work may be sold, either
by itself or as part of a larger work, without the express written
permission of the author; this restriction covers all publication
media, including (but not limited to) CD-ROM.


-- 
 http://www.comlab.ox.ac.uk/oucl/users/sharon.curtis/
 v 3.12  GM/CS d s:++ a-< C++ U+ p L !E W++ N++ o+ K w-- O? M-- V--
 PS? PE? Y PGP- t-- !5 X- R- tv--- b+++ DI+ D- G e++++ h- r z+(--)
 -=- A month is a calendar, a year can be a decade spent alone -=-

Section 2 of 2 - Prev - Next