PROBLEM OF OBESITY

Shannon News, 5 March 1926, Page 2

PROBLEM OF OBESITY

WEIGHT-RED i ICIN’ G METHODS. VIEWS OF PHYSICIANS. NEW YORK, Feb. 24. * Over 20,000 inquiries from women who wished to know if dieting to reduce weight ,is unhealthy were discussed by a, convention, at which physicians, dieticians and nutritionists met to formulate proper and healthy reducing methods. Dr. Joseph Bloodgood, of John Hopkins University .said that while fat could be removed surgically, it was not a good method. He considered that people should be educated to fear improper diet. He believed that the food of primitive races was the besjt, diet, because it was largely milk and vegetable, with nothing canned or preserved. He pointed out that primitive races suffered less from .cancer than civilised peoples. Dr. Rumse.l. Wilder, of the • Mayo Clinic, said that the reducing habit was productive of more good than harm if a proper diet wore followed. Dr. Menas Gregory, chief psychopathic at Bellevue Hospital characterised the modern tendency of women to reduce as “psychic contagion.’’ It frequently resulted iu serious mental disorders when women over-re- • reduced. They became irritable and depressed. Dr. Arthur Cramp, chief of the medical investigators attending the convention, stated that many thousands of women waste money on treatment for reducing weight which is worthless, and often dangerous to health. A ’tremendous impetus had been given quackery by the vogue of the boyish figure, said Dr. Cramp. He said that those wh'o eat must exercise a litjtlo if they are likely to become obese. The conference decided to warn people to avoid all practitioners who claim to reduce by special treatments and also to urge physicians to study each reducing case carefully and keep it. under constant observation. Dr. Dublin, who represented the life insurance companies at the convention. stated that over-weight became a decided menace to health after the ag 0 of 85. fgVMC-.