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- Path: sparky!uunet!gatech!pitt!geb
- From: geb@dsl.pitt.edu (gordon e. banks)
- Newsgroups: sci.med
- Subject: Re: Obesity in the US is stress related.
- Message-ID: <15741@pitt.UUCP>
- Date: 21 Jul 92 14:40:41 GMT
- References: <leonid.711407541@spssig>
- Sender: news@cs.pitt.edu
- Organization: Decision Systems Laboratory, Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA.
- Lines: 28
-
- In article <leonid.711407541@spssig> leonid@spss.com (Leonid Feygin) writes:
- >If I am not mistaken, nobody has yet mentioned that stress in many cases
- >can cause obesity. Being under stress, many people find relieve from it
- >in excesses of various kinds: anti-social behavior, drug and alcohol
- >abuse, as well as overeating. Needless to say, overeating is most
- >common (and considered most benign).
- >
- Stress can precipitate overeating in some people, but I don't think
- it would be proper to say that stress causes obesity, even in them.
- It is possible that if such people could lead a life without stress
- they would not be obese, but it would be hard to demonstrate that
- scientifically. Eating is one way I react to stress, but I think
- that even without stress I would have managed to become obese.
- Other people react to stress by not eating and losing weight.
-
- >
- >In other words: since obesity is often the result of psychological and
- >mental disorders which are caused by stress, and the USA is an obvious
- >leader in this area, therefore the USA has so much obesity.
- >
- Certainly I can think of many societies more stressful than the US,
- where we have most of our needs met. I think this conclusion is
- highly speculative.
- --
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Gordon Banks N3JXP | "Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and
- geb@cadre.dsl.pitt.edu | it is shameful to surrender it too soon."
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