Opinion
Bariatric society president: Metabolic syndrome diagnosis is useful in treatment
LETTER — Posted Oct. 10, 2005
Regarding "Critics question usefulness of metabolic syndrome diagnosis" (Article, Sept. 19): As president of the American Society of Bariatric Physicians, I am amused by the debate about the existence of metabolic syndrome. Perhaps those who doubt its existence are not clinicians, for there is little doubt among the vast majority of our 1,200 member doctors that people are suffering and dying from this constellation of symptoms and signs. Unifying these into a single entity serves to remind us that we should be treating underlying causes and "the whole patient."
This debate reminds me of the oft mentioned case of the bumblebee. Supposedly, aeronautical engineers can "prove" that it cannot fly.
Meanwhile, the bumblebee keeps right on flying and bariatric physicians in the clinical trenches keep right on treating metabolic syndrome successfully. I'm sure our patients (and all those pretty flowers) are glad we forge ahead while the arguments continue.
Michael Steelman, MD, president, American Society of Bariatric Physicians, Oklahoma City
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2005/10/10/edlt1010.htm.
