Fox's newest medical drama, "House" takes on obesity. In episode
28, "Heavy" - which aired March 28th – we meet Jessica, an
overweight ten year-old, whose heart stops when she collapses during
gym class.

As we follow this medical drama, we course through a full gamut of
obesity issues - a Fat 101 for Prime Time - insensitive doctors,
protective parents, secretive children, self-esteem and body image,
school yard taunts, diet pills, and genetic disorders - just to name
a few.

"Of course you're sick, you're fat," argues an insensitive doctor
entrenched in a medical culture trained to view fat as a moral
failing. This led to an interesting discussion between the Dr. and
Jessica's mother where the mother complains "you just can't see past
her weight." You mean there could be something else?

Of course, this is where the "real" doctors come in to save the day.
It turns out Jessica has a tumor, as a result of a disorder called
Cushings Disease. Cushing's disease is probably more accurately
referred to as hyperadrenocorticism -- the production of too much
adrenal hormone causing increased drinking, increased urination,
increased appetite- resulting in weight gain and high blood pressure.

It was refreshing to see the medical community (ok, so it's only on
TV) looking for causes beyond diet and exercise as a possible reason
for the illness. Actually treating the patient as a patient and not
simply as a fat person. We all are too aware of the studies where
the symptoms of big folks get lost by doctors who simply don't pay
attention to them because they assume any problem they have is
caused by being overweight.

So as to wrap things up nicely (hey, we only have sixty minutes and
we have to work in a few subplots and doctor squabbling here and
there), Jessica has surgery and then fast forward a week to a
recovering, slimmer Jessica. Whew . . .

While it seems to be progress to see plus-size characters appearing
on Prime Time (even if it's on sitcom medical shows), there is some
concern over the "at least she's not fat, anymore" ending. It
suggests that all of her suffering was wrong, not because it's
suffering, but because she wasn't really meant to be fat. If she
were still fat at the end, would the staff have been vindicated?

Kim
www.PlusStuff.com