Cosmetic Surgery Since 1997

Here's a great infographic about how the 'face' of cosmetic surgery has evolved over the past 15 years. It compares some of the earliest trends of cosmetic surgery with the latest and demonstrates how the introduction of non-surgical procedures has impacted the field. All of the information is from the ASPS annual reports on cosmetic surgery.

Cosmetic Surgery Since 1997 | Infographics

Fat Shaming: A new way to prevent obesity?

As much as we would deny it and insist that we don’t participate, there tends to be a lot of, well, unkindness that gets directed toward the overweight population. This might be in the form of a stray comment at the water cooler, or a roll of the eyes when at a restaurant. Regardless, obese individuals are regularly ostracized by our behavior and the things that our culture produces. In many cases they can even be discriminated against because of their appearance.

Our culture glorifies beauty, and beauty, it tells us, comes in a very, very specific package: thin and fit. Therefore, when we see people who fall outside of these criteria for beauty we can regard them as anomalous, or altogether ugly; we feel that our cultural measurements of beauty entitle us to evaluate other people’s health and appearance. It also doesn’t help that loads of scientific research indicate that obesity puts people at risk for severe illness in the future. We can often feel that these little medical factoids justify our disgust with obese individuals, and we hide our insulting behavior under the guise of advancing healthier behavior. But despite how offensive or hurtful this stigmatizing can be, some people are beginning to think that it might be the only effective way to combat the obesity epidemic.

Recently, a researcher at a national bioethics institution published a paper evaluating an alternative method of obesity prevention. Daniel Callahan has proposed that we should begin to allow “edgier” anti-obesity initiatives that essentially involve shaming the individual into losing weight. Now, the approach isn’t (entirely) as extreme as it sounds – to put it into perspective, Callahan cited the remarkable success that similar marketing initiatives have had on the smoking community. By increasing awareness about the adverse health effects of smoking, we were able to stigmatize the act of smoking, thus making it significantly less attractive to its proponents. Callahan said that the “campaign to stigmatize smoking was a great success, turning what had been considered simply a bad habit into reprehensible behavior”.

Callahan’s observation about smoking is an astute one: if we see a very preventable activity causing widespread illness and death in our society, shouldn’t we respond to the harmful behavior according to how serious the issue is? In this case, the act of smoking was publicly eviscerated as unhealthy, unwise, and downright irresponsible – this stigmatization of smoking proved to be very effective. So should we use a similar method for the case of obesity? This is the question that has people divided on just how similar the two cases actually are.

With smoking, the cigarette was what was attacked. More specifically, the action that people typically perform with a cigarette was attacked, but nevertheless, the cigarette was the symbol that became publicly humiliated. If we evaluate the problem of obesity, pretty quickly we’ll recognize that there might not be any “symbol” that we can separate from the person to whom it pertains. Obesity is an anatomically inherent condition that is being stigmatized, not some secondary device that can be observed on its own. To attack obesity would necessarily mean attacking the person who it is attached to.

This raises questions about increased workforce discrimination, and whether worsening an already serious issue is really the solution to obesity. However, Callahan argues that there needs to be some sort of palpable social pressure to prevent obesity if we intend on decreasing its impact in the future. The best way to do this, Callahan suggests, would make people want to strongly avoid becoming obese through marketing and other public service initiatives. Since the fear of illness, immobility, or death don’t seem to decrease the growing obesity numbers, we need to do something that will prevent people from ever becoming obese in the first place, rather than trying to change the habits of those who already are.

Despite being an ethically dubious approach to the obesity crisis, Callahan’s suggestion is still extremely interesting, and seems as though it would be effective, but the concerns of his opponents are still just as valid. It’s difficult to decide if obesity is something that we should handle with tact, or with aggression. There are plenty of healthy, medically supervised options available when it comes to weight loss, but these opportunities aren't addressing the obesity problem effectively. We need to decide if the severity of the issue requires similarly severe methods of prevention.

Foot Fungus Laser Technology

Attribution: mickeysucks

Between 6% and 8% of the population suffers from Onychomycosis, otherwise known as foot fungus. Foot fungus typically results from your foot being exposed to a dark, most environment for long periods of time. This makes sense when you consider that most fungus in the wild is found exclusively on one side of a rock or tree, or in a dank cave that sunlight can't penetrate. Whenever your foot come in regular contact with a surface or environment like this, you risk the contraction of fungal infection.

Fungal infection typically occurs in older subjects, since there is less blood circulation to the extremities, and there has been more time for the fungal infection to develop. In fact, over 60% of people over 40 demonstrate some form of fungal involvement in their feet, as well as 80% of the population over 60. Concisely, most of us will experience foot fungus at some time in our lives.

New treatments are being introduced that intend on using laser technology to eradicate fungus from infected toenails. These cutting-edge lasers replicate the light waves emitted by the sun - which are known to inhibit fungal growth - and penetrate the deepest layers of the nail in an effort to destroy the fungus.

This article has a brief history of the lasers, as well as some more information about how the laser works and where you can find it.

Breast Cancer Awareness Online

It's probably safe to say that by now you have been fed up with your Facebook feed. You're probably not crazy about everything that you see, but you might just be too lazy (of feel too bad) to unsubscribe from someone else's posts. The truth is, that most of the stuff that you see on Facebook just doesn't mean anything.

Attribution: jonkpirateboy

Think about it - if you make plans with a friend on Facebook, you are probably going to confirm those plans with a phone call or a text message. Although Facebook is a 'social' media site, it is never a terminal channel for organizing your actual social life. But despite how unofficial and non-authoritative Facebook is, we can sometimes get caught up in the news-feed frivolity and contribute to the flow of nonsense.

This article talks about how Facebook fails as a successful way to endorse awareness about a serious issue: breast cancer. It talks about some little 'game' that has been circulating the social media space that aims to create awareness about the disease, but fails because of how we view information on Facebook. Originally intended to be a little activity to (somehow) educate people about breast cancer, the game simply falls victim to the problem of meaninglessness that affects everything that we put on our profile page.

The article goes on to remind readers that breast cancer is a serious reality, and that it not something that people should be treating as a 'game'.

What Your Diet Is Missing

Sometimes our desire to be fit and thin outweighs our desire to actually be healthy. We focus on the next year or so (or the upcoming summer) and focus all of our determination on the goal of losing weight. But sometimes a low-calorie diet can neglect vitamins and minerals that are vital to your body's everyday functions.

Here's a post that talks about four things that your diet might not feature enough of. It explains why your body needs more fiber, zinc, omega-3s and folate, and how you can work these things into your health regimen.

So make sure that your thinner lifestyle isn't depriving your body of things that can extend your health long into your later years because, let's face it, we're not getting any younger.

Attribution: AudunV

Justice is Only Skin Deep

It’s a common criticism that men are vain and superficial. Film, music, and television all perpetuate the illustration of the shallow bachelor who refuses to associate himself with a bachelorette for anything other than her physical appearance. Men are painted as these one-dimensional cretins of the social world whose atavistic urges prevent them from appreciating a woman for anything other than her looks. This kind of thing is said to happen everywhere from the schoolyard to the board room - the male population apparently prefers thinner women almost exclusively.

This has a lot of men crying ‘foul’ against their feminine counterparts. They claim that these caricatures of slobbering buffoons neglect to acknowledge the intellectuals, the poets, the philosophers – the gentlemen. They try to distance themselves from the stereotypical alpha-males around them, and claim to be a part of a vast fraternity of guys who champion chivalry instead of chauvinism. These nice-guys-finish-last types may even be believable…if studies about them didn’t always point in the opposite direction.

Not only is this just a preference, but there seems to be a deeply-ingrained tendency in the male psyche that naturally discredits heavier women. A recent study by Yale psychologists surveyed the propensity of both male and female jurors to evaluate someone’s innocence based on his or her appearance. The people conducting the study described a false case to the participants: check fraud. The participants were then presented with one of four images: a large man, a thin man, a large woman, and a thin woman. The participants would proceed to rate how guilty the defendant was – a judgment strictly based on the defendant’s physical appearance – using a five-point Likert scale.

Interestingly, the women who participated in the study showed no discernible bias in evaluating the defendants. Researchers found no direct connection between the defendant’s appearance and the degree to which the female participants deemed them guilty.

On the other hand, there was an abundance of evidence suggesting that the weight of the female defendants directly influenced the male participants’ decisions. Researchers observed an apparent proclivity for the men to deem the image of the larger female defendant as ‘guiltier’ than either of the men or the thin woman. Not to mention, slimmer participants would consistently label the obese female defendants as ‘repeat offenders’ and having ‘awareness’ of their crimes through the rating system. Needless to say, this micro-population demonstrated the largest selection bias of any group represented in the sample.

This could have serious implications for the legal process that is enacted in every courtroom of jurors. No doubt, personal bias always has some bearing on a juror’s decision, but this study could suggest that there is a serious corporate problem with how the male community delivers justice. A sample of 471 is, of course, not exhaustive, but the results are still striking. There could be other societal influences on the study. Maybe the sample was in a community where there is a very consistent perception of criminal personalities – possibly the likeness of the large female defendant just happened to fit the description of a large population of criminals in these men’s communities. 

Nevertheless, the study is still remarkable. If it is, in fact, consistent with the tendencies within the larger population of males, it reveals some pretty uncomfortable information about male psychology that confirms volumes of social criticisms.

I guess guys just can’t catch a break…

The article can be viewed here

Lance Armstrong Confesses

The news has finally emerged about Lance Armstrong's admission to using performance-enhancing substances during his time as a cyclist. Armstrong has been recognized as the beloved tour-de-force of the Tour de France for years, but the recent news concerning his dubious performance has his fans (some former) divided.

Many people are outraged that he has taken so long to come clean about the subject, saying that he could have come clean about the issue long ago, but wanted to wait until his success and career was behind him.

His more loyal proponents are insisting that his long history of work for LiveSTRONG - an organization devoted to helping the cancer community - far outweighs his decision to juice. These people say that the impact that his success has allowed him to make in the cancer community was worth his lapse in athletic honesty.

Armstrong has reportedly given an effusive apology to his staff at LiveSTRONG for all of the stress that speculation about his athletic past has brought upon the organization. Whether his apology is sincere, however, will be up to others to decide.

The story can be viewed here

Photo attribution: lapstrake