As I struggle to find sleep again tonight, I happened upon this article in the Los Angeles Times, entitled "Some anti-obesity campaigns may backfire, researchers say."
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-obesity-20120912,0,5230176.story
I felt compelled to write the author to give a little information about what it is like to suffer from obesity.
If you are here taking a moment to read this, I thank you, Melissa. Please, please help us. ~m
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Hello Melissa.
I am obese and I appreciate the sensitivity shown in your recent article. I gained 110 pounds rapidly and unexpectedly despite all efforts to eat well and exercise for many years. I wonder what percentage of this country's obese population may actually have Cushing's. Many otherwise helpful doctors consider Cushing's "impossible to have" so much so that they refuse to test a patient especially when it is the patient who used the internet and available medical literature to research the symptoms online. Many physicians have blamed, scolded, humiliated, and ultimately dismissed my Cushie friends and me when tumors causing a disruption in our endocrine systems are ultimately proven to be the culprits behind our massive weight gain and constellation of bizarre symptoms.
This paragraph, in particular, somewhat explains the prejudice my fellow Cushing's patients face at the hand of those medical professionals we seek out to help us:
"Even among physicians, obese patients elicit feelings of prejudice and blame. A 2003 survey, published in the journal Obesity Research, found that half considered their obese patients awkward, ugly, unattractive and unlikely to follow their advice. In addition, one-third of doctors viewed obese patients as weak-willed, sloppy and lazy."
On a personal note, I have had two pituitary brain surgeries to remove two separate tumors, yet I am still suffering from persistent Cushing's disease. I hope to have another major surgery within the next few months in another effort to cure myself of Cushing's.
If you are interested in exploring this cause of obesity in greater depth, it would be my honor to sit with you and share more information about Cushing's. An article such as this will spread awareness and undoubtedly help countless people who have suffered for many years undiagnosed from a disease that even the medical community fails to recognize. After all, we Cushies deserve compassion and love despite our illnesses, especially since friends and family fail to support or believe us. We did not do this to ourselves, and we have no control over the damage these tumors do to our bodies.
Melissa
