For terminal AIDS or cancer patients carrying a little extra weight is a good thing

[Darren2013]

Under normal circumstances being overweight poses a health risk and can create all kinds of problems down the road.

 

However under rare circumstances like an AIDS or cancer diagnosis it may be better to carry a little extra weight whether it is muscle or fat.

 

Put it this way. With any grave illness like AIDS or cancer the person is going to drop weight without trying over time anyway assuming that the disease runs its course. While the disease may appear to be doing some overweight people a favor in the short term what about the long term when the weight drops to a point where the patient is getting too skinny?

 

Being too skinny in itself can shorten a person's lifespan because their immune system is not that robust and they are more susceptible to more diseases and invaders. In addition being too skinny just gives the cancer or AIDS or other grave disease more advantage and therefore the progression speeds up.

 

That's why terminal patients who are carrying the extra weight will live longer than terminal patients who get too skinny. So if doctors and loved ones want to keep a patient around longer and even extend quality of life then keeping their weight up is a good thing. Therefore liberalize the diet and yes get plenty of fruits and vegetables but don't put any dietary restrictions either. High fat and high protein and high calorie foods are good and while the body is battling a grave disease it won't store any calories as it will make good use of those calories.

[Gloria25]

I'm sorry, but I don't agree.

 

I believe the key is being "healthy". Skinny does not mean "fit" and/or healthy. And weight brings on additional medical complications that weaken the body.

 

I know of someone very close to me who had HIV. She was already heavy, but got obese out of fear that if the HIV developed into full-blown AIDS she would get skinny. Well, she died from complications of the weight waaaay before the HIV turned into anything.

[Darren2013]

I think there's a difference between keeping the weight up vs. trying to become obese. Obviously her disease was in the early stages and therefore wasn't causing her to lose weight effortlessly. I'm speaking mostly in the context of intermediate or advanced disease. Weight loss without trying is a sign of advanced illness.

 

No I don't encourage someone to become obese. Obesity is much more than carrying a little extra weight. When I say a little extra weight I mean being like 10 pounds overweight. Very likely that weight is going to come off slowly over time as a result of the illness progressing. The body uses the fat stores for emergencies to fight off an enemy.

 

When the body stops storing fat in spite of eating a quart of ice cream in one day for example then that's one of the signs that it has good use for all those otherwise stored calories to fight whatever it is fighting whether cancer or AIDS or some other grave condition. The body knows how to communicate to you when it is in a state of emergency and one of the ways it does that is by immediately using up the calories consumed.

Edited December 15, 2014 by Darren2013