Wednesday 13 July 2011

Physicians, heal thyselves.

Remember when MRSA started? Remember all those desperate and pathetic attempts by the medical profession to blame it on farmers and antibiotics in feeds?

It wasn't found on farms at the time. At all. It wasn't found anywhere else but hospitals. The key was resistance to methicillin, which has never been used as a farm antibiotic.

When it escaped into the community, the medics put a lot of emphasis on how it was found in the community. So it's not a hospital problem. They didn't cause it, you did.

MRSA started in hospitals. The medical profession has never accepted the blame but has expended considerable effort trying to shift blame elsewhere.

Now we have the phenomenon of anorexic men in the midst of our obesity epidemic. Perhaps these are the men who shout 'Who ate all the pies?' while those who got there first just whistle and look at the ceiling.

This is blamed on young men trying to look like male models. Not female models, not those stick insects that can be fairly blamed for dangerous undereating in girls. Male models are to blame for male eating disorders.

If you look at the average male model, something sticks out a mile (steady now, ladies). They have muscles. Not Shwarzenegger muscles, but decently defined muscles. They don't look as if they've been lost in the desert for three weeks. They look as if they could walk into a gym without wearing a baggy T-shirt and nobody would laugh.

So if young men were really trying to look like male models, they would be buying weights and drinking protein shakes. Not starving themselves until they could audition as a skeleton warrior for 'Jason and the Golden Fleece' (or was it the 'Argonauts?').

NHS figures have shown a 66 per cent increase in hospital admissions in England for male eating disorders over the last decade.

This will be the same NHS that tells us we are about to sink under an obesity epidemic, yes?

Medical experts blame the surge on an obsession with looking good by having bulging biceps and a six-pack stomach.

And here's the crunch.

These will be the same medical experts who have declared perfectly normal children to be obese and instilled a terror of being even slightly overweight in chidren from a very early age.

The same medical experts who declare that a pot-belly is the road to all kinds of horrible diseases and an agonising death.

The same medical experts who have harassed children for years about the deadliness of eating the wrong thing, and then declared everything to be the wrong thing.

Well, the children they have indoctrinated with their British Standard Human ever-changing rules and regulations have now grown up. They have grown up knowing that to be at all overweight is to be considered disgusting and to be shunned. They have grown up knowing that they must not eat more than the standard calories per day, no matter how much exercise they do - and they must exercise every day. That particular indoctrination is now to be applied to five-year-olds. They have grown up knowing that the more they weigh, the more likely they are to die of something horrible, and the less they weigh the better.

They have grown up anorexic.

And we are to blame male models for this, even though no male model would find work if he looked anorexic. We are not to blame the constant haranguing over weight and appearance from medical experts over the last decade or so. We are to let those medical experts continue to indoctrinate the next generation of children, to save us from the obesity epidemic.

It's time the NHS was shut down. Before it kills us all.

28 comments:

jones said...

Life is a sexually transmitted disease which is 100% fatal.

Something must be done about this.

sixtypoundsaweekcleaner said...

Yeah...shoot all the politicians.

sixtypoundsaweekcleaner said...

No, no, no...tax 'em.

(might as well put 'em to good use)

Xopher said...

Think of a theory - terrify the public - stuff the consequences - You've got an untouchable pension.

Anonymous said...

I didn't read the article on anorexia but I did research on male eating disorders about 15 years ago and my work has been supported by a few others since then. Yes, you're quite right - male "anorexia" has similar roots to female anorexia but very different symptoms. Where women may starve themselves (or in the case of bulimia, binge and purge) male anorexia is defined more by (although women do this, too), as you point out, excessive exercise. As much as the healthists would decry the suggestion, excessive exercise can be profoundly unhealthy. There is also the related phenomenon of distorted body image in males which has been nicknamed "bigorexia", where bodybuilders the size of small buildings can look in the mirror and weep because they are still "too small." Distorted body image and unrealistic aspirations are the root causes here.

If men really are starving themselves I would imagine that there are other reasons at work - being weak and puny has never been an aspiration for men. That said, since the rise of the metrosexual in recent years and the general infantilisation of society maybe male body-image has changed. Only this week I saw a 19 year old student crying and complaining to her friends that she was "old" now that she's turned 19. Maybe starving oneself, far from trying to attain an idealised body is more to do with remaining as childlike and dependent as one can, and young men have also fallen into this trap. Yet another score for the healthists, maybe and their continuing campaign of infantilisation.

But I don't do psychological research anymore, so who can say?

typecast terror said...

yes, leg-iron...and if you could find the strength to quit smoking your pub-troubles would become an irrelevant itch-in-history.

...and in a similar vein, i admit, as a die-hard free-marketeer, my initial reaction to the murdoch monopoly-furore was a precipitous preference for the news international acquisition of bskyb to be allowed to proceed, on the strict proviso that all executive, directorial, political and law-non-enforcing criminals implicated in the scandal be imprisoned...but, no, this vindictive press-gang-approach can never succeed...because legislation against the congenital pastime of snooping is aimlessly akin to pissing in the salty sea of lascivity - the only solution open to the people is to expose these blasé blackmailers, blaggards and bullies to the world, leaving them locked in their collectively callous conscience for the soul-searching stretch of eternity.

however, who amongst us has the individual free-flaw-ridden character to stare the two-way mirror of journo-justice straight in the minder's malicious eye?

sky-dive sketch-writer, perhaps? or some other crazy coked-up concupiscent cunt.

equality of impression said...

01:13

with freedom-of-speech comes the implicit responsibility for stripping-down eaves-droppers and saying: be my guest.

Anonymous said...

""yes, leg-iron...and if you could find the strength to quit smoking your pub-troubles would become an irrelevant itch-in-history.""

Is this an ASH TROLL that has appeared amongst us?

ASH TROLL - venture not here until ASH opens its site up to comments. Begone, Satan! Bring not your ephemera to our reason! Blast your emotions! Go ye to Australia!

Leg-iron said...

Jones - I'm not spreading it.

£60aweek - you mean tacks them. With carpet tacks. Lots and lots of carpet tacks. One a day. Forever.

Or, we could think of something nasty.

Xopher - they don't believe there will ever be consequences. Not for them, anyway.

Leg-iron said...

Anon - Yes, the body image and sexuality of men is changing, or rather being changed. Not mine because I have never been able to sustain the illusion that I could ever look good. I am well aware that I look like something the cat would pay the dog to drag in, and the dog would still refuse.

I don't recall anyone being too bothered about body image in my youth. There were the 'captains of the team' type who wore school uniform that didn't look as if it had been slept in but in my circle, no fashion, no pressure.

I wore a denim jacket with a split seam I had fixed with string. Nobody minded. It wasn't poverty, I just liked the jacket and didn't want to throw it away. Now, many more kids want designer stuff, while we had worked out that the more expensive the clothing, the more trouble we'd be in when we wrecked it. Breaking cheap stuff didn't get you hit.

And white clothes? No sensible parent would have even considered buying them.

The shallow ones have taken over the world, it seems. But that's okay, they don't eat much.

obama - the double-dutch indemnity agent said...

'physician heal thyself' - one of my favourite mottos...and, for some reason i always think of it when folks tell me that there can never be any compensation for the north-atlantic slave-trade organisation. well, what d'you call having a black president installed (on his wife's knee) behind the very oval-office desk where bill and monica found the meaning of true non-sex? and what d'you call having a black president who has taken the opportunity of wreaking unspeakable revenge on muslims for their former colonization of africa? ok, so maybe you think i should've got passed a bill of reparations and dished out a few dollars more to the brothers and sisters...but hey...wouldn't it have been considered just a bit previous...or forward even...for the first african-american president of the united states of america to jump right in and do that sorta thing? anyway, you can all rest assured that, on behalf of all white people, and all black people, i have sincerely, profoundly and unconditionally apologized to myself - and paid myself a few billion in damages too. so wotsit that yous all worried about, man?

Leg-iron said...

Typecast terror - haven't seen you around for a few days.

yes, leg-iron...and if you could find the strength to quit smoking your pub-troubles would become an irrelevant itch-in-history.

Spectacular point-missing. First, I do not need the strength to stop smoking any more than I need the strength to wake up every day. I smoke because I like it. I smoke and drink together because the combination pleases me.

I will stop when it no longer pleases me. Not before. Comments like yours ensure that I will smoke more, and for longer, than I would have if left to my own devices. Because I am a contrary little sod and always have been.

Second, I have no pub problem. I have an alternative so I don't need them any more. In fact, if the ban was repealed tomorrow, there are likely to be a lot of us not rushing back to the pubs. We have our own places now and we don't care too much if your places close.

Did you think, after years, we'd all still be sitting at home alone moping? We've circumvented the problem, thanks, and it's not a problem at all now.

As to the murdoch stuff, I don't watch TV other than Dr. Who on iPlayer (and those new Daleks are rubbish), nor do I buy his or anyone else's newspapers. They are full of crap. I'll read them online if they're free but pay to be lied to? I already get that through taxation.

It was amusing to see MPs telling off someone for tapping into phones, when they are trying to tap into phones, internet and everything else. They're probably just upset that Murdoch's people thought of it first.

Leg-iron said...

equality of impression - the only responisbility attached to free speech is the responsibility for what you say.

There is no responsibility to assess what anyone else says. Call them on it or ignore it. If they libel you, sue them. If they offend you, offend them back.

Leg-iron said...

Junican - I think I know who it is. Besides, I like trolls. Gives me someone to play with.

Leg-iron said...

obama double-dutch etc - I don't care if the president of the USA is blue and comes from Rigel. I don't care if our own Prime Monster has tentacles and makes Hentai films in his spare time.

I only care what they do.

If only they did.

Angry Exile said...

Perhaps these are the men who shout 'Who ate all the pies?'...

Do they still have the strength to shout?

Junican, for Christ's sake don't send 'em here. We've got quite enough of the pricks already, thanks.

Anonymous said...

MRSA has been about for some time and in the 1960's was acknowledged to have originated in hospitals.
In the local general hospital where I worked at that time the bug went by the name of "the hospital staff", as they were the carriers. "Staff being a play on words with the "S" in MRSA.

John L said...

I am 1.74m (5 ft 8 1/2") and 127 kg (don't ask me in stones, I've forgotten). After finding out that one of the main ways doctors diagnose anorexia (which is partly a mental illness) is to find out if the person sees a fat person everytime they look in a mirror. iF they do they are anorexic.

I do see a fat person everytime I look in a mirror. Going by the medical professions logic therefore I must be anorexic and have to eat and drink more. Where's the nearest pub and pie shop so I can do what the doctor orders?

I may be short and fat but I've not seen a doctor for 9 years, I'm not ill and every 2 years the doctor who performs the wok medical reckons I'm insufferably healthy for someone who totally ignores all the advice on safe limits for having a miserable life.

the persisting pariah state of proactive punitive protectionism said...

02:12

on behalf of all white people, you have apologized to yourself, and on behalf of all black people, you have gracefully accepted - marvellous, glad to hear that you have the situation under control. what would we do without you, sir.

clearly a good call - obviously a public campaign for an apology and reparations in respect of the apocalyptic trade agreement visited upon africans would have been quite lacking in grace, not to mention being in contravention of all rules of etiquette.

ethical bullshit organization said...

02:15

glad to hear you missed me, leg-iron. i've been on-call down at north woolie ferry terminal, it's all rather depressing really - there's a voyager down here who's not well enough to travel and being illegally detained at an unacceptable distance from his family. on the instructions of the government, i've also been busy applying for jobs for which i am probably not qualified and certainly not going to get - you see, unfortunately, unlike yourself, leg-iron, we are not all paid for our scribblings.

Leg-iron said...

persisting pariah state etc - I have never, and will never apologise for slavery. Neither will I apologise for 9/11, Dunblane, the Crusades, the burning of the library at Alexandria, the invention of the wheel or the creation of life on Earth.

Because I didn't do any of those things.

If you want an apology for slavery, talk to those who are actually doing it today.

Leg-iron said...

ethical bullshit - Writing doesn't pay much. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who wants more than the basics out of life.

Writing this, of course, doesn't pay at all.

The writers who end up rich are those whose books are made into films, then there are the toys and the lunchboxes and the trinkets and tat etc.

Maybe, one day, there will be children falling asleep while cuddling their Bifrons toys.

...or maybe not so much falling asleep as passing out after screaming themselves blue.

Well, I can dream.

'p's said...

00:12

if you want an apology for slavery, talk to those who are actually doing it today.

i was, but you butted-in you prat.

Leg-iron said...

'p's - then make it clear who you're talking to.

And if you're going to insult me, please, please put some imagination into it, you lice-riddled badger-scrotum.

dave "the dachshund" cameron said...

01:25

i found rather amusing the use of the word 'butted' in connection with leg-iron, but i can't for the life of me put my finger on why?

baldrick's bottom line said...

01:25

leg-iron appears to be labouring under the pitiful pot-induced delusion that he's capable of filling edmund blackadder's codpiece.

Leg-iron said...

Baldrick's bottom - I did fill his cod-piece. With salt and chilli squeezings.

Laugh? I nearly soiled myself. He actually did, four times.

sick james said...

02:40

so percy got a taste of sorta spicy wotsits then? ahahaha

opinions powered by SendLove.to