Humanities & Society

Because obesity is a chronic illness, long-term treatment is required to help obese patients make the lifestyle changes to lose weight and keep it off.Almost two-thirds of Americans are either overweight or obese, and that figure is growing — both in size and number. People with medically significant obesity have a body weight that is more than 20 percent above normal. The reason it is called medically significant obesity is that weighing that much puts people at risk for heart disease, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure and cancer. It also decreases quality of life. Researchers at Washington University’s Weight Management Center help patients lose weight safely and reduce long-term risks of obesity-related diseases by taking a long-term approach. Because obesity is a chronic disease, they believe short-term therapy will not be effective. Just as physicians would not want to treat a diabetic with insulin for four months and then stop the therapy, they say that beating obesity often requires continual care.

SherradenThe social work professor who pioneered the idea of Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) — matched savings accounts for low-income Americans — says that President Bush’s new individual savings proposals benefit the wealthy but leave behind the working poor. Michael W. Sherraden, Ph.D., the Benjamin E. Youngdahl Professor of Social Development and director of the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis, says that President Bush’s proposals to expand individual savings are wise, but fall far short of their potential. Sherraden offers suggestions for making investing opportunities available and profitable to all.

John O. Haley leads the law school’s Whitney Harris Institute.