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AIBU

Managed by health

(54 Posts)
User7777 Mon 09-Aug-21 13:03:45

I think I am unreasonable. I have multiple health problems. And to be constantly harassed about my weight etc by those who know best. I feel as if it's a slide towards the care home or grave, when they want to measure me, take bloods, review me constantly. I know in my heart I still feel young but am restricted by health. I dont need reminding all the time. Ie. I cant have this that it the other unless I am reviewed. My life isnt my own anymore

Oopsadaisy1 Thu 19-Aug-21 09:25:19

Yes YABU they are all trying to help you . If you don’t want help then write a letter to your GP refusing all treatment, but if you Do want help, then at least be polite to these people who are trying to do their best to help You.
If losing weight takes you off of some medication and improves your life, then why wouldn’t you at least try to do it?
If you are in your 90s then I can understand you wondering what’s the point, but as long as I can help myself to keep well I will and I honestly think that you need a change of mind set and someone to talk to to get you through this.

User7777 Sun 22-Aug-21 15:07:48

Unbelievable that some posters assume a person is overweight due to excessive food. My weight was caused by side effects of medication. There are many people with weight gain caused by other than food intake

Casdon Sun 22-Aug-21 15:14:23

Weight gain caused by medication can be managed effectively User777. Your clinical team will advise, but here are some useful tips.
www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/how-to-lose-weight-from-medication-weight-gain-10-methods

Mildmanneredgran Sun 22-Aug-21 15:19:40

Why do you think you're being unreasonable, OP?

Oopsadaisy1 Sun 22-Aug-21 16:34:27

user777 my comment about weight loss was in response to your sentence about being ‘constantly harassed about weight loss by those who know best’ I assumed this was Medical staff. Surely if it was a medication problem they would be told not to mention it?

Peasblossom Sun 22-Aug-21 17:20:21

Umm, medication in itself doesn’t cause weight gain. Apart from some syrupy medicines, it has little or no calorific value.

What medication can do is change your metabolism so that maintaining past eating habits leads to weight gain. As Caslon says, this needs to be managed medically.

With some conditions it does mean a restricted diet and this is why supplements then have to be prescribed to ensure adequate nutrition.

I think it’s important to be factually correct about medication and weight gain.

Hetty58 Sun 22-Aug-21 17:39:11

User7777, remember, your life is always your own - and you do have choices (you can listen, or not, take notice/action - or not).

I do know exactly what you mean. I'm always infuriated at the dentist (the annual check up) by the compulsory silly questions. These days, I choose to give silly answers:

Do I take sugar in my tea? No, I take tea in my sugar!
Still smoking? Yes, I really do enjoy it!

I tell them I'm not interested. I brush them, full stop. I don't like them - and can't wait to lose them and get better ones!

Same at the doctors. Weight, height, blood pressure (bit high) - the same as last year.

I'm unconcerned with self improvement, not worrying about health. (After all, health anxiety is very bad for you.)

So, thank you and goodbye, I'm off to enjoy myself and live my life. Their boring, wise words fall on deaf ears. I make sure that they know it - and joke my way through the MOTs!

Peasblossom Sun 22-Aug-21 17:50:50

The OP does want medical intervention but only the things she chooses. With multiple health problems, the medical professionals have to maintain a balance for the patients own good. It’s particularly difficult with the children and older patients and needs a high level of skill.

I have a relative who could control his diabetes, blood pressure and surgical hernia needs by losing weight and taking exercise. But he just says “I’ve got tablets for all of that.”
And then moans about side effects that he expects the doctor to treat with more tablets.

Why shouldn’t a medical professional tell a patient that changing their life style would benefit them medically. Isn’t that an important part of medicine?

Hetty58 Sun 22-Aug-21 18:03:11

Peasblossom, point taken - but it's the endless repetition of the blindingly obvious e.g. no sugar, lose weight, more exercise etc. that makes patients feel that they're being treated like naughty children. Best to laugh it off - especially when the advisor is obese!

Peasblossom Sun 22-Aug-21 18:04:04

?

User7777 Tue 24-Aug-21 12:30:39

Hetty58 . Thank you. My weight was caused by medication, not over eating. I was stick thin then ballooned after the medication started. The medical profession thinks, just suck it up, we know best for you. I know best for me, I am not dead yet...lol

Peasblossom Tue 24-Aug-21 12:38:16

There is no calorific value in medication. It can’t add weight.

Only your calorie intake can do that.

User7777 Tue 24-Aug-21 12:48:33

Side effects of medication does balloon quite a lot of us. It defo is not caused by food.

Silverbridge Tue 24-Aug-21 12:56:05

Some medications, cortico steroids notably, do cause weight gain. According to one study, weight gain was the most commonly reported adverse effect of steroid use, affecting 70% of those prescribed the drugs.

Steroids cause weight gain by altering the body’s electrolyte and water balances, as well as metabolism — the way it uses and stores protein, carbohydrates, and glucose, among other things.

Many people on steroids notice increased fat in the abdomen, face, and neck. Even if you successfully control steroid-induced weight gain, you’re apt to look heavier while on these drugs because of this fat redistribution.

How much weight gain there is depends factors such as dose and duration.

Peasblossom Tue 24-Aug-21 12:58:48

Weight gain is a side effect of some medications.
It’s a big problem because the medication alters the metabolism so that the body no longer consumes calories in the way it did.

But it has no calorific value in itself.

Weight gain is always caused by the deficit between calories consumed and calories used.

Peasblossom Tue 24-Aug-21 13:02:25

Yes, you do look bulkier on steroids. But you don’t have to be heavier. You don’t have to be overweight.

You do have to make a big effort?

Jillyjosie Tue 24-Aug-21 14:55:58

Some people blindly adhere to medical professionals (who certainly do make mistakes and don't necessarily listen) while others question and want some choice in their treatment and explanations about medical decisions.
I once had a herpes infection which spread to my eyes, the GP said it was a virus and there was nothing he could do. I was recommended by a friend to go to the A&E department of the local eye hospital and the doctor there virtually went white and said that without treatment I might have gone blind.
I've heard numerous stories of misdiagnosis and frankly, now, the NHS has become a postcode lottery in terms of care, and GP, availability.
I'd say read everything you can, OP, about the condition/s you have, arm yourself with information and keep at it asking for proper care.
If you can afford it, a good acupuncturist can sometimes work wonders. Chinese medicine has been around for 2000 years.
And just to fend off the anti complementary medicine sharks, I'd recommend The Spark in the Machine, written by a professional A&E doctor who is also an acupuncturist. Fascinating validated stuff.

GillT57 Tue 24-Aug-21 15:09:05

Peasblossom

There is no calorific value in medication. It can’t add weight.

Only your calorie intake can do that.

Not true. Steroids have the side effect of weight gain, and usually rather rapid.

Peasblossom Tue 24-Aug-21 15:31:41

Yes it’s a side effective. It’s not the steroids. They have no measurable calories. It’s what they do to your body in regard to burning of calories and where the excess fat is deposited. And, tryingly, appetite.

But only substances with a calorific value can increase your weight.

pinkquartz Tue 24-Aug-21 15:44:54

Medication can and does add weight. It all depends on the type plus the individual but I know it happens.

Befoer being very ill I was not just slim but skinny.
Now I am very overweight despite a very healthy diet and I do not overeat. I have too many health issues to want to eat or drink anything that can make me feel any worse than I do.

`I can't exercise because I can't and I have to use a wheelchair. So my preferred exercise of lots of walking and dancing has gone too.

I have experienced certain meds piling on weight in the most bizarre and scary way. Once I put on 3.5 stone in just 6 months while taking pain meds recommended by the Pain Management people. I later found out through searches online that this is a common side effect and the medics mostly take no notice except once while in A&E I talked with a Doctor who had a lot of knowledge of theis particular drug and he did know that his med causes in a lot of perople a LOT of weight gain.

pinkquartz Tue 24-Aug-21 15:47:33

When people talk about calorific values I would point out thsi is an old fashioned concept now.
It is more about hormones and interactions between people, mental health and even back to metabolism.

Peasblossom Tue 24-Aug-21 15:59:06

I just don’t know how to explain this.

Weight gain happens when excess calories are stored as fat.
(You can have some weight gain by developing muscle but usually the calories consumed in exercise needed to develop the muscle equalises the weight of the extra muscle)

Medication has little or no calories so cannot be turned into fat and stored.

Medication can and does alter the working of the body, the resting metabolism often slows, so that the body burns fewer calories than before. A side effect.

Somewhere there is a point in every body where calorie intake equals calorie output and weight remains stable. There is no excess to store.

Medication can make this point very low. So low that people cannot always consume sufficient nutrients in the calories they take and have to take supplements. A healthy diet can still contain more calories than are being used.

Some medication, ,such as steroids, can make maintaining or losing weight very difficult.

But the medication itself cannot be turned into fat and stored.

welbeck Tue 24-Aug-21 15:59:10

the author, hilary mantel, has said that a medical condition and associated medication has increased her weight greatly.

Peasblossom Tue 24-Aug-21 16:01:22

I agree pinkquartz that there are all sorts of issues surrounding weight gain.

But the biological equation is always energy in vs energy out.

NotSpaghetti Tue 24-Aug-21 16:10:36

JenniferEccles

What a very strange thread.
How can you possibly be angry with medics who, presumably, are doing their best to help you with your various illnesses.

I wish you would take the recommendation to lose weight seriously as being overweight will undoubtedly impact negatively on your health generally.

The medical professionals you complain so bitterly about are the very ones with the potential to restore you to good health.

This is NOT a strange thread and although in a different situation I know exactly how the OP feels.

Maybe you have to have experienced something of it to "get" it.

USER7777 flowers