Who hurts the US Healthcare system worse?

Hello to all participants:I just went and did a body composition test online, plugging in the numbers as asked at the website: Body Composition CalculatorIt seems that there is more to this system than simply waist, weight and height. This could be the cause for some of the confusion on how accurate it is.When I completed the form, it asked me for four different circumference measurements, including neck, abdomen I, abdomen II, and hips. I think using these numbers along with height and weight may give a better picture than simply waist and weight.Crash has great points on the fact that there is not any normal that we can really pick out who can be a template for the entire world, there is just far too much inconsistency. However, I also see Oni and CS's points that it is a rather good indicator of Body Fat content and especially when you take these multiple circumference measurements. This should allow the person giving the results to be far more accurate in this test.Now, how did it work out exactly? Let us find out...I am 6'2"
158 lbs
my hips are 32" as is Ab I
Ab II is 34"
Neck is 16.5"
Oh...age and lifestyle are also included...31 and sedentary (for the most part)After completing all of that information:
12.66% Body Fat as compared to my last time having it checked being at 11.5%, although that was over 6 months ago.However, it seems that it should be a pretty accurate estimation on Body Fat, although it will definitely run into the problem of people have different body types and fat contents.I think the best plan would be to utilize something like body composition to get a baseline for how obese the individual is. Should this statistical inference show that the person has high body fat, perhaps he or she should then utilize the hydro one that Oni is discussing with 1% margin of error. This would better prepare them to understand if this is lifestyle and diet caused or if there is an underlying cause genetically, or if the body composition was incorrect because the individual's body does not fit into the statistical mold.ABE - Also, to remain somewhat on OP's original topic, I think that people have done a great job of pointing out how much the older generation is currently costing us in healthcare. However, I think that Oni is right to be afraid of the future of our healthcare because there is a much larger obese population currently that will eventually get older. If the costs are as high as they are for the generation that did not eat fast food all the time, imagine what they could be with obese individuals getting older and reaching old age.I know that obesity tends to kill individuals younger, but remember that medical breakthroughs are constantly increasing the life expectancy, even of those with obesity. So maybe they will not make it into their 90's, but during their late 50's to 70's we will see the bill from this larger population of obese individuals.Edited by Tempe 12ft Chicken, : No reason given.

This I can definitely get behind. Especially when you consider that a bulk of that 46% does come from the elderly and that is not something we would like to change. We want to continue to have individuals living into a ripe old age and being able to enjoy as many moments as possible with those they care about.However, being in a system where you have to choose between homelessness and healthiness leads to a problem. If someone cannot afford insurance and has a serious illness then they would be forced into this decision. I know that this can even occur for some maladies with insurance. When I worked for a restaurant, their insurance would cover me to a certain point and then I was left on my own. It was not terrible and worked fine for most necessities. Luckily, I did not have anything serious happen because I later found out that my insurance would have paid its max with me having to stay in ICU for five days. FIVE DAYS!!!!! When that is all you can offer someone, who is insured, who has a serious issue it shows we seriously need to look at the price.Especially when you consider individuals who cannot afford insurance, do not have an employer that provides anything, or has pre-existing conditions that eliminate them from being insurable. Imagine how much debt, because of the price of health care, this individual will rack up in five days when it is enough to use my entire year's allotment of insurance payments.Thank God I did not get into a car accident when that was my insurance!

While I get this question, I am looking more at how it will be in the future, so for this I think it is important that we look at the diseases that obesity is said to cause and what is being done to be able to heal these diseases.According to the website Top 10 Obesity-Related Diseases some of the main diseases that afflict the obese community are heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and cancer.So, what is being done in the medical community to work on these diseases.Well let's start with heart disease, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. One of the main causes of death that these three diseases lead to is heart attack. However, when we look at the studies, more individuals are surviving from heart attacks. According to the article below, a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that in 1995 14.6% of patients died in the hospital within thirty days of being admitted for a heart attack. In 2006, this number was down to 10%. Also, the general health of these patients was worse in 2006 than in 1995, so the main reason is being touted as hospitals are getting better at treating heart attacks. Heart Attack Survival Rates RiseAnother thing to realize is that with the current stem cell research leaps and bounds are being made toward healing the scarring caused by a first heart attack. Originally, only stem cells from the patient were used but these take years to grow and cannot be relied upon to help in the moment. However a recent study has show that donor stem cells are equally as beneficial toward healing heart scarring. According to Dr. Joshua Hare, "we saw a 33 percent reduction in scar tissue in both [the donor and self-sourced] groups." This reduction in scarring also allowed the patients hearts to reduce inflammation and all patients showed benfits during the six minute walk test that was performed. The study is still in an early stage, but could go a long way to reduce repeated heart attacks. Stem Cells from Donors May Help Heal HeartNow, we move onto Diabetes. We know that there are far more factors than simply obesity that result in an individual being diabetic, but is there hope for the future of these individuals?Another Stem Cell study that is currently going on is located in New Zealand. According to Dr. Turner, who is involved in the study, "a Chinese-American study, published earlier this year, proved stem cells could be used to help turn off aggressive auto-immune responses." The study he is discussing attempted to use stem cells to suppress the aggressive auto-immune responses. In twelve weeks during the study, every patient involved was making insulin at higher amounts than they were previously. Stem Cell Study Holds Diabetes Cure PromiseFinally the big C, cancer. I am not sure how obesity makes individuals more prone to cancer, I was always under the impression that we are all at risk of this disease equally, but according to the website about the top 10 diseases, this is on the list. So, what is being researched about curing cancer at this time. There is one interesting study coming out of Sweden that we could look into.According to this report, Professor Magnus Essand has found a virus, named adenovirus serotype 5, that is able to attack cancer when endogenous viral promoter sequence is replaced. This virus has shown positive results in attacking and removing tumours in lab mice. The problem with this study is a lack of funding and so it has not been able to move beyond the animal testing at this time. However, seeing the advances in medical tech in the past twenty years, I assume that advances will be coming our way. A virus that kills cancer: The cure thats waiting in the coldI agree that currently the health care costs are less for the obese because of premature death. However, if these cures/treatments continue to move forward, there does seem to be a likelihood that we will begin to be able to keep those who are obese alive into older ages. Heart attack survival rates are up and curing scarring can possibly lessen the chance of a repeated occurance. Unless the person does not change lifestyle. So, imagine a world where an obese individual has a heart attack and arrives at the hospital, he or she survives and then the doctors use stem cells to reduce the swelling and inflammation. This individual feels healthy and decides to continue the lifestyle and eventually suffers another heart attack. Now, currently in this scenario, with the scarring on the heart from the first heart attack, this obese individual is prone to have a much fiercer heart attack and the heart is already damaged. This will most likely result in death. However, if the heart is fully healthy again, there is a much better chance of the individual surviving another heart attack...So I do think that we will see higher medical bills for the obese in the future because of our ability to increase that which we can cure.However, I think that it will just be an addition to the healthcare costs of the elderly and we will just increase the percentage of healthcare spent on that segment of the population.Edited by Adminnemooseus, : Reset "signature" to what I edited it to (small font, space between quotes, and other minor tweaks).