Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: GBSB on 12/07/2006 21:56:31
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OVERWEIGHT AND OBESITY IN CHINA FROM 10th TO THE 20TH CENTURY
For nearly a thousand years long (from the 10th centuries to the 20th cent.) it was customary in China for the female population to wrap their feet with bandages from an early age with the intention to keep their feet small for their whole life. One consequence of practicing this custom was that no one female was ever described as overweight or obese.
This means that females of all ages whose feet were wrapped with the intention to keep the feet small all their life was never able to be overweight or obese, no mater how much the intake of calories was or how much calories she burned and no mater what their genetic make up was.
The male population didn’t use to wrap their feet with the intention to keep them small for their whole life, which is why we can find descriptions of the male population ranging from all shapes and sizes.
We can see that feet wrapping was an effective way to keep the body weight under control.
Please note: It will be insane today to wrap the feet with the intention to lose undesirable body weight. We already have plenty of insanity in the treatment and prevention of obesity, and we do not need a new one.
Understanding the effect on the body caused by wrapping the feet
How the wrapping of the feet caused the effect of controlling the weight of the body can be understood if we first understand how it is possible to do every day activities like walking or running with wrapped feet.
• With their feet wrapped, they their increased feet sensitivity in such a way that the wrapping alone caused small discomfort.
• Any motion with poor balance like falling from one leg to another by walking or running will produce pain in the feet and at the same time will produce small discomfort in the rest of the body.
• Due to the feeling of pain in the feet, the body immediately starts to be aware in such a way that it will try to do everyday activities with more balance. In this way, the feet will be safe from the pain and at the same time the rest of the body will be safe from small strain (infra-pain).
We can conclude that wrapping the feet was used not only to achieve small feet and control over the shape and weight of the body, but as well as to increase body awareness to the small strain caused by doing everyday activities with poor balance.
To get the idea on how it was to walk with wrapped feet, you just need to walk with bare feet for a few minutes on rough surface like sharp sand or small pebbles.
Conclusion
Walking or running with poor balance has the affect that we are falling from one leg to another by transferring body weight from one leg to another. Each time when we are falling from one leg to another we are hitting the ground with our feet. Hitting the ground with our feet is action. We know that every action causes a reaction. In this case, the reaction is the impact force. Impact force spreads from the bottom of the feet to the rest of the body. This impact forces causes (small degree) strain in the body and because of presence of this strain in the body, the metabolism builds new weight.
To prevent the building of body weight, we need to modify our way of walking and running in such a way that we are reducing the strength of impact forces. To be able to reduce the strength of impact force, we need to improve our physical balance.
Actually, by reducing strength of impact force, we reduce the strain caused by impact forces. It is another way to reduce strain caused by impact force by making body stronger, because a weaker body is more sensitive to strain caused by force of impact than compared to a stronger body.
By overweight and obese people, walking and running with poor balance not only causes stronger impact force but it also causes the stressing of fat tissues by each step done with poor balance.
We just need to observe overweight or obese people when they walk or run and we will see that their fat tissues are stressed by each step. It looks like their fat tissues are restlessly fidgeting.
For slightly overweight people to be able to prevent the building of body weight and to start to lose weight, it is necessary to reduce strain on the body caused by impact forces.
To reduce strain on the body we have two choices;
• One choice is to reduce strength of impact force by improving physical balance of the body.
• Second choice is to make body stronger by improving physical strength of the body, because stronger body is less sensitive on the same level of strength of impact force compared to a weaker body.
For obese people, it is not only necessary to reduce the strength of the impact force, but it is also necessary to prevent the stressing of fat tissues by doing everyday activities. And that is possible only by improving physical balance.
Most people who are labeled as overweight and obese are strong and they are able not only to carry their own body weight, but also many of them do hard physical job, like people who working in construction industry, hospitality industry, etc.
Problems emerge by practicing any program (diet or exercise or combined) for losing weight, because all diet and fitness programs for losing weight are based on the principle to exhaustion of the body (burning calories or restriction intake of calories or combined) which quickly leads to weakness (body loosing strength) and prolonged time of weakness leads to any kind of illnesses.
• One type of weakness can be caused because of tiredness (caused by physical exhaustion or caused because of a lack of sleep) or because of short term malnutrition (hunger). This is short term weakness. In this case, the body does not try to reduce the strength of impact force; even this type of weakness further contributes to walking or running with more poor balance and in this stage, strength of the impact force is increased.
• Another type of weakness of the body is caused because of illness or long term malnutrition. This type of weakness is increasing body sensitivity on the impact force. In this case, the body tries to reduce strength of impact force.
Another programs for losing weight (medication and weight loss surgery) is based on directly inflicting illness.
• All medications for weight loss are nothing else but the means to chemically inflict illness to the body. Side effect is, to some extent, weight loss.
• All kinds of weight loss surgeries are nothing else but the means to physically inflict illness in the body. Side effect is, to some extent, weight loss.
Observing the walk of elderly and people affected with illnesses, we can notice that their walk is different from people not affected by illnesses in such a way that they gently transfer body weight from one leg to another by walking.
This explains why elderly people and people with longstanding illnesses quickly lose body mass, muscle and fat tissues. This process is called atrophy.
Till now, all “science” of overweight and obesity orbits around the intake of calories: building fat tissues and burning calories: burning fat tissues. This shows us what scientific value is present in the “science” of obesity.
It is time to understand real cause of obesity.
Luka TunjicHow we challenge the pull of gravity, determines the weight and shape of our body.