Exacerbaters

According to Merriam-Webster - to exacerbate is to make more violent, bitter or severe.

Something I saw as I was logging off last night and something I heard this morning led me to this day's post.

The first was a headline regarding a study that found (and I don't know the nature of the study, but let us just say it was a well designed one and the results are valid) persons who are obese and have fibromyalgia have worse symptoms than those who have this ?disorder/disease who are not obese.  The obese fibromyalgia sufferers have more weakness, more pain, and worse sleep. 

When I saw the headline I thought "Was that really something that needed to be studied? We already know that obesity has adverse affects on the body."   Obesity is like smoking.  They are both like lighter fluid on a lit grill. Anything that might be wrong with a person is going to be worse if they are obese or if they smoke.

Today as I listened to a newstory regarding the prognosis for  US Congresswoman Giffords (shot in the head this weekend) the point was validated.

The surgeon being interviewed noted that Ms. Giffords had several things working for her at this time.  She is not obese, does not smoke, is young (40ish) and is in good general health.

You see when you take away the health promotion/health educator programs, big brother, insurance company qualifiers, all the people trying to tell you what to do and others telling you it is your right to smoke and that fat is beautiful - you are left with the truth.

If you are diagnosed with an illness or suffer a severe injury- being a nonsmoker of normal weight who exercises and does not have chronic disease - will significantly increase your odds of survival.  If ill, your symptoms may be less and your condition "cured", if injured, your recovery is likely to go smoother and happen quicker. 

That surgeon talking today - he didn't have an agenda - he was just giving a prediction based on what he knows about the human body.  He spoke truth.