Medical support for thinness is one of the important developments contributing to the growth of our current obsession. It is interesting to note that only 100 years ago, American physicians were encouraging people to gain weight, believing that "a large number of fat cells was absolutely necessary to achieve a balanced personality."1 As late as 1926 Dr. Woods Hutchinson, former president of the American Academy of Medicine, warned that "the longed-for slender and boyish figure is becoming a menace, not only for the present, but for future generations."2 Today, fatness as chronic disease and weight reduction as cure stand as almost universally accepted medical dogma.
The unfortunate and often tragic consequence is that over the last 100 years medical science has promoted a wide variety of potentially dangerous and sometimes lethal diets, drugs and surgeries to help people reduce their weight " in the name of health."3 The vast majority of those participating in and suffering from these "cures" have been women, despite the fact that women's fat confers only a fraction of the health risk of men's and may actually carry with it significant health benefits.4,5,6 This legacy continues today, as young girls and women continue to divert significant proportions of their resources to the pursuit of ideals of body shape and size that are, for the vast majority, neither achievable nor healthy.7
The following is a partial list of some of the "medical" the interventions
that have been recommended over the years "in the name of health."
“IN THE NAME OF HEALTH”
1890 - Corset
1893 - Thyroid Extract
1920 - Laxatives
1933 - Dinitrophenol
1937 - Amphetamine
1940 - Atropine
1940 - Digitalis
1946 - “Rainbow Pill”
1957 - HCG
1964 - Total Fasting
1969 - Intestinal Bypass
1974 - Jaw Wiring
1977 - Gastric Bypass
1985 - Gastric Balloon
1990’s - Fen-Phen, Redux, Meridia, Xenical
© Fall 2001