- Introduction
- For those who are fat, there are no options either
- Analyzing the problem
- But, let"s ask ourselves: Is fatness an illness?
- Propaedeutics for the treatment of fatness for those who wish to eradicate it
- Now, the next question is: Who is capacitated to treat this problem?
- Bibliography
"Treating obesity it"s like learning another language". FEFL
Introduction
Obesity could be defined as the triumph of an instinct over the power of reason.
This very tragic admission, takes us to the reason that inspired the epigraph of this essay, which is dedicated to a subject as important as it is neglected: The obesity pandemic of the XX and XXI centuries.
But, who is this Hobson whose name is mentioned in the title?
You can have it in any color, for as long as it"s black…
According to the legend, the so-called Hobson"s Option had its origin on the celebrity of a Thomas Hobson (ca. 1544-1631) who lived in Cambridge England, and who maintained a very popular stable for the hire of horses.
Hobson required that all clients were required to take the animal closest to the door of the barn or none.
He did so to ensure that both, the animal and the prospective rider, had to accept the whims of fate.
In other words that it was an option with no alternatives — an option with no options — take what"s offered or take nothing.
This is the same conundrum that Henry Ford presented when he offered his Model T with the possibility of choosing any color, for as long as it was black.
For those who are fat, there are no options either
In the understanding and treatment of corpulence there are so many factors in collusion that force the unfortunate victims to accept as solutions whatever the "experts" offer them, which often amounts to zero.
In that consists — for those who long to be svelte — Hobson"s Option, or an option without options.
Thomas Hobson
Analyzing the problem
In this article we intend to conduct a brief analysis of obesity as an illness and to advance recommendations towards its treatment, utilizing a model that is sensible, scientific, humanist and honest — something that very few can offer.
In order to begin our dissertation, we will ask the most obvious question:
Why is obesity such an important and vital subject to us?
Let"s see:
The statistics are depressing. In the USA, 1,100 million of adults are fat, and every day more are added to this figure.
Simultaneously, the numbers of obese children, once a rarity, continue to swell en alarming proportions.
And it"s not only in the US, in other countries the situation is identical and continues to advance inexorably.
As a diagnostic entity, fatness persists as the most misunderstood and most exploited of all human miseries.
In the US alone, people wasted 33 billion dollars in 2010 to combat the scourge. The fight to eradicate it is being lost.
In all countries, ours included, many people, in desperation, risk their lives in the operating room attempting to remedy it, while many continue to get fat after the operations.
It"s a situation as desperate as it is depressing, since it is a well established fact that fatness is of no benefit to any one, because being overweight runs against our nature.
As a problem, obesity is advancing rapidly in its position as a unique health problem worldwide.
Cigarette smoking still is considered the chief cause of death in America, with the second being obesity.
The latter is expected to outpace smoking at the end of this decade.
Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder
As a health problem, its importance is well established, and as such, ways to solve it remain elusive, since the solutions rest in the hands of people that are ignorant of the complexities involved.
It"s axiomatic, that no one has ever come up with the silver bullet that will stop its progression.
Add to the above the calculated indifference of the governments of almost all nations to solve this problem, plus the fact that their most learned spokesmen in the sciences lack suggestions in order to accomplish any constructive goals and, now, we can understand why the situation approaches critical proportions.
We are not saying that obesity affects only a few underprivileged souls, but, that it reaches across all socioeconomic and demographic levels.
Fatness is a living hell that we all equally share.
Psychologically fat people suffer tremendously, even when they deny it.
They suffer, because, as part of their cure, the methods that we have available subject them to suffer from hunger, something that we all know it"s most painful.
So painful is this feeling of hunger, that it can be said that few can withstand it for long, even if they wish vehemently to escape the prison of their blubber.
Everybody is beautiful in his own way…
Hunger itself is maladaptive, because our species is programmed to avoid it in all its forms.
And all the cures for obesity thus far proposed — from diets to surgeries — are based in the endurance of hunger.
Contrary to what some "experts" try to beat into our heads, this hunger is not psychological hunger. However its effects are translated in manifestations both physical and emotional.
Countless investigations –– which are ignored by the majority of those who propose to treat this condition — indicate that all the methods of treatment existing today disposal are ineffective to treat this affliction.
But, let"s ask ourselves: Is fatness an illness?
If by illness one understands any condition with established and recognizable causes, with a defined clinical evolution and with laboratory tests that confirm its existence — then obesity is not an illness in the strict sense of the word.
We prefer to define obesity as a group of psychosomatic responses to the excessive accumulation of fat in the body.
OB/ob
These responses are the result of multifaceted factors, that make it refractory to treatment, that lead to its becoming chronic, and that cause many of the associated complications, that often endanger the lives of the victims.
Fatness is not the simple disequilibrium between what"s eaten and exercise. No, the evidence is clear, that this proposition known as the "fiduciary model" is erroneous, even if it"s well accepted by most of the poorly informed today.
Fatness is an individual response to a variety of factors of ill understood complexity.
In other well supported theses I have described in detail, and have identified the many masks that this monster dons in order to fool all of us.
As few have done, I have studied fatness from all its angles and in all its aspects:
I have analyzed it from the adaptive point of view, to the theological, ethic, economical, cultural, humanistic, geopolitical and more.
I have studied and analyzed fatness for the public and for some representatives of official agencies in many countries of the world.
I seriously doubt that anyone else can boast more articles covering this subject than me.
Recently, former president Clinton, in a publicity gesture of sympathy towards the fat kids of the US, offered to dedicate part of his life to eradicate this problem among children.
So has, Michele Obama done the same, following political suit.
Food is a many splendor thing…
So far, some three years later, nothing has come out as a result of their futile efforts.
To this time, fatness remains the Hobson"s Option, which it is: The horse nearest to the door, which is the option to perish.
Propaedeutics for the treatment of fatness for those who wish to eradicate it
To treat fatness one has to accept that diets or exercises are alternatives that have proven to be lacking in value.
One has to admit that no one has yet come up with a proven method that has demonstrated its efficacy.
Atkins, at the time of this writing, was under protection of bankruptcy laws, and the other popular methods, besides being directed by amateurs or by confused professionals remain ineffective because lack of scientific foundations to conduct the treatment.
Fatness is resistive to treatment, cannot be disguised, and, since is ostensible; everybody tries to find a method — preferable a magic and expedient one — that would eliminate it effortlessly.
Paradoxically these rapid methods so far, have resulted in cementing it indelibly in the victims" bodies, because these methods are more often than not restrictive diets with their dire lack of permanent results.
These diets are what the experts most often recommend.
The moral approach would be one that conducts the treatment of this condition individually, obtaining an exhaustive analysis of the person involved and developing a program tailor-made to her needs, in order to proceed parsimoniously to a final resolution.
But, as it"s the case with psychotherapy, the mega-dollars are never obtained neither with individual processes nor with individualized attention to a few.
For that reason we remain stuck in search of a solution that may never arrive.
Now, the next question is: Who is capacitated to treat this problem?
Only capacitated to treat it is one who has studied the problem exhaustively for many years, from every point of view and one who has been successful in doing it.
Someone who understands obesity for what actually is:
A psychosomatic affliction, with genetic and degenerative underpinnings, associated with many environmental factors in the micro cosmos where the patient lives.
That someone actually is not commonly found.
But for whatever is worth: That someone remains as the Hobson"s Option.
Bibliography
Larocca, F: (1984) The Psychiatric Clinic of North America issue on Eating Disorders W. B. Saunders & Co.
Larocca, F. E. F: (2007) El Sistema Fiduciario en monografías.com
Dwyer, J and Larocca, F. E. F: (1974) When a Child is too fat. Patient Care VIII-6- 158-76
Cassell, D, and Larocca, F. E. F: (1994) The Encyclopedia of Obesity and Eating Disorders. Facts On File
Larocca, F. E. F: (1991) A Public Primer on Eating and Mood Disorders Midwestern Medical
Larocca, F. E. F: (1986) Eating Disorders: Effective Care and Treatment Ishiyaku Euroamerica
Larocca, F. E. F: (1986) Eating Disorders: The Facts in New Directions for Mental Health Services # 31 Jossey-Bass
Larocca, F. E. F: (1986) Una Introducción a las Disorexias en Médico Interamericano 5:12 27-30
Larocca, F. E. F: (2007) Los Trastornos Malignos del Comer en Psikis.com y en monografías.com
Autor:
Dr. Félix E. F. Larocca