Weighty Issues

Every so often, we're required to write mini research papers and present them to our small groups for our Medicine and Society class. These MAS Learning Issues are important, but truth be told, no one prioritizes them. Ever. If I am studying for a different class, I put off the paper until 12:20am and tell myself I'm going to bed at 1:00am. So it forces me to finish a paper that should probably take me 2-3 hours in 40 minutes. And I'm okay with the mediocrity. I have other studying to do. Real studying. For classes that matter.

But okay, I actually put in the work this time. I did my research on weight epidemiology. Because let's face it, Iowans  Midwesterners are big(ger). I contrasted BMI and metabolic syndromes in Iowa versus that in Taiwan. Which is allowed because I'm the only non-white person in my group, and therefore by default, the sole expert on such matters.

What I found was, Taiwan has lowered its cutoff for BMI as 28 for being obese (In Japan where only 3.5% of the population is obese under the standard distribution, now a BMI of over 25 is considered obese). If the US were to make the same cutoff, roughly 70% of Americans would be considered obese! Crazy! But here's the rhyme to the reason: Asians are predisposed to metabolic syndromes at lower body masses.

Since I've been here, multiple people have commented on how "skinny" or "small" I am. That is absurd. Among my friends back home, I'm either average or larger than everyone else. Because I'm average, and among Asians, I'm a giant. I mean...have you seen my tiny friends?! (Tiny friends, I'm looking at you). I do some weight training now (20 weeks and counting!) and am mostly interested in being strong and physically fit rather than thin.

But some weird things still. I'm sure people have heard of skinny or fat shaming (not entirely sure what either mean). I feel like physicians have a duty to be physically fit in order to counsel their patients more effectively. It might even be a requirement, who knows (unlikely, since many students in my class probably fall in the BMI 25-30 zone). The other day, I had a unit patient visit and the patient I saw had BMI of 77. I realize that most of you don't have a reference for that. I don't either. I looked it up and generously calling our lady 6" (she definitely wasn't 6 feet tall), she would still be 570 lbs. Sure, not all of us will ever be thin. But when you need assistance sitting up and scrubbing under the folds, that's just not a good way to live.

My Carver College white coat (the one they ceremoniously cloak you with at the White Coat Ceremony/aka Induction to Medical School) is an XS. My cadaver-dissection scrubs were XXS (bought at Walmart, lulz). Anything I order in M (school logo shirts, etc) is always too large. What is this world.