Fighting the Obesity Epidemic

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses and describes the findings of studies done on the causes and treatment of obesity. The paper looks at possible genetic and chemical causes, as well as different types of diets and surgical measures used to treat obesity.

From the Paper:

"Perhaps one of the most intriguing bits of scientific research Pool offers is the one with which he begins the book, the realization by researchers in 1997 that the hormone leptin, or more properly the body's inability to make it, is responsible for a particular type of obesity in which the genitalia do not develop properly, and there is a total absence of satiety (2001, p. 5). The person lacking the gene to make leptin never knows when he or she is full, and so is always hungry. However, this has been found to be highly inbred, and so may not have a lot to say to the general population of overweight people. "The most striking thing about these scientific reports is the near-absolute power that the genetic mutations seem to hold over their victims. None of the unaffected family members is fat, yet with out exception the subjects with the mutation are grossly obese" (Pool, 2001, p. 5) What this finding does lay to rest, at least for some obese people, is that willpower is at the root of fat."

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