OCR Text |
Show AMA warns obese against many health club' reducing programs Commercially promoted reduced re-duced weight clubs are potentially poten-tially dangerous for the overweight over-weight person who goes into such programs without guidance guid-ance of a physician, the American Ameri-can Medical Association warned. warn-ed. i The AMA aimed its warning i especially at peisons consider-! consider-! ing joining commercially oper- ated health clubs where no medical checkup is required. "Since excess weight may be a symptom of illness, it is vital vi-tal for any person who wants to lose weight to have a physical phys-ical examination by his physician physic-ian before participation," the AMA said. Franchises given A number of commercially operated weight reduction clubs are now in operation across the country. At some, there is not even the minimum of medical supervision, reports showed. Franchises of such "health clubs" have been offered in advertisements ad-vertisements appearing in national na-tional news publications. Phillip L. White, ScD, director direc-tor of the AMA Foods and Nutrition Nu-trition Dept., charged that the club approach to obesity often is "nothing more than the financial fi-nancial exploitation of obesity." Poor fitness Dr. White said that the overly over-ly obese person has enough problems as it is. "We are concerned con-cerned about the poor state of obesity, be it excessive gour-mandizing, gour-mandizing, genetic, traumatic or environmental factors, a glandular malfunction, or some other such factors, obesity is clearly a medical problem," he said. In an address to a California professions have an opportunity ded that the medical and allied professions ave an opportunity to initiate prevention and control con-trol recommendations during the critical periods of undesirable undesir-able weight gain. Mercy plane rescues doctor in Antartic. AFL-CIO supports Johnson on war. (physical fitness of people and have advised that physical activity ac-tivity should be part of weight control programs," he said. "But community facilities for fitness programs are woefully absent, and essentially non-existent. "One can't be too concerned about the YMCA-type programs that are under reliable, intelligent, intel-ligent, realistic control," he said. Dr. White stressed that the AMA Council on Environmental Environmen-tal Health has said that facilities facil-ities must be provided for exercise ex-ercise for adults and young people. Moral support The AMA said group "workouts" "work-outs" which are being promoted promot-ed by the new health clubs may give the overweight person some moral support for his effort, ef-fort, but little else. "Adequate treatment of obesity obes-ity is often a more complex matter than diet and exercise, the usual club regimen," Dr. White asserted. "Regardles of the cause of |