obesity

What Skinny Doctors Don’t Get About Their Obese Patients

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Let’s just keep talking about treating obesity

Fifi Trixiebell (not her real name) wrote to [email protected] asking us to discuss what medical students learn about nutrition, and whether they think the keto diet is just another fad. Luckily, Madeline Slater, Emma Barr, Kyle Kinder, and newbie Sam Palmer–M1s all–just had a unit on nutrition so that’s an easy one. But Fifi Trixiebell had written in before, a message which–despite his policy of answering every listener question–Dave had passed over. Why did he ignore it? He’s not sure; it was a while back, but it may have triggered him (though, to be clear, it wasn’t Fifi’s fault). We also discuss an article from HuffPo about the “unique and persistent trauma” doctors visit upon their obese patients.

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Q&A With Dr. Paige O’Mahoney, Physician-Author and Wellness Coach

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Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I started medical school at age 27 after studying international relations in college and then working as a paralegal in an international law firm. I met my husband, who was also changing careers, the first day of a post-baccalaureate premed program called MedPath at the Ohio State University. I mention this because I did not choose to pursue medicine at an early age, but rather felt called to it during the course of my education and training in other areas.

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Why isn’t learning about public health a larger part of becoming a doctor?

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public health

Chronic conditions, such as Type II diabetes and hypertension, account for seven in 10 deaths in the United States each year. And by some estimates, public health factors, such as the physical environment we live in, socioeconomic status and ability to access health services, determine 90% of our health. Biomedical sciences and actual medical care – the stuff doctors do – determine the remaining 10%.
Clinical medicine can treat patients when they are sick, but public health provides an opportunity to prevent disease and poor health. But too often, medical students don’t get to learn about public health, or how to use it when they become doctors. That means many of today’s students aren’t learning about health care in a broader context.

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