GRSJ224/Medicalization of Obesity and Fitness

This page is by Alex Shen

Summary

Staying fit and good dietary practices are essential for maintaining a healthy body while government health initiatives and new medical research and discoveries improve health on a nation-wide scale. However, the influence of government health initiatives, medical developments, and the media can potentially harm people through medicalization. Medicalization is when non-medical issues are viewed in a medical lens and treated from a medical prospective when it might not be necessary.

Obesity Statistics

According to the world health organization, being overweight or obese and having excessive fat can potentially impair physical health. People are classified as obese or overweight using the BMI scale which compares weight and height then puts them on a scale and the larger their number then the more likely they are to be overweight. Obesity is a growing problem as in 2016, more than 1.9 billion adults over the age of 18 are over are overweight and 650 million of those people are obese. Most notably the worldwide number of people who are obese have tripled from 1975 to 2016.

Medicalization of Obesity

Classifying obesity as a serious issue that needs to be resolved has caused benefits such as schools implementing initiatives to help promote an increase in physical activity to reduce child obesity while building better exercise habits. The media markets the “ideal” body type which inherently encourages people in some format to pursue some positive dietary and fitness goals to achieve said body type. Classifying obesity as a serious issue that needs to be addressed has also fueled the medicalization of obesity. Medical companies create “easy solutions” in the form of drugs and surgery that can mislead consumers through advertisements which suggest that they need certain treatments when it might not be necessary. Advertisers broaden their target range by generalizing the people that can use their medical treatment in an attempt to capture the largest audience and customer base. Over the years, there have been more accessible treatments and the normalization of weight loss treatments in the form of things like the bariatric surgery which alters stomach or intestines to induce weight loss. Any kind of surgery has risks and medicalization of something like this can increase doctor’s misdiagnosis and ultimately raise chances of inflicting patient harm. Over 400000 people die a year due to medical error and this form of preventable patient harm.

Medicalization of Fitness

Both women and men experience the media marketing of extremely the difficult to achieve physique in various advertising campaigns of a variety of different products. Sailors asks if the advertisements on magazines are “invitations or imperatives”, questioning whether it is asking women to exercise and become fit or demanding that the “ideal” body type on the magazine is for women to strive for. Sometimes these images are photoshopped or editing creating a body goal that can probably never be achieved. Media influence on women can ultimately lead them to seek diet drugs, weight loss surgery and other medical procedures. Men viewing the same sort of media can observe other men utilizing steroids in fitness magazines which also creates a false ideal image that is difficult to achieve in everyday practice. In addition, fitness and gym culture promotes a plethora of supplements such as protein powder, creatine, BCAAs, and glutamine which further medicalize basic fitness and exercise.

Conclusion

This imagery in media set a body standard that is virtually unattainable which may influence individuals into seeking a variety of treatments, from surgeries, drugs, and other products advertised to provide a solution. Medical companies and their disease mongering tactics promote their medical solutions in a wider general format to engross as many consumers to purchase as possible. Various blogs, forums, and articles on fitness seek clicks and views on their page and by creating titles that people want to hear and simplifying health issues misinformation can be spread. “Easy diet tricks” and other quick fixes can sometimes be examples of this kind of simplification and miscommunication of fitness information. All these factors combined drive consumers to different kinds of medical treatments to deal with their weight loss or fitness goals. While the majority of medical treatments have a purpose and people that may need them, over promotion of medical treatments and misinformation can lead consumers incorrect usage and doctor misdiagnosis.