Yo mamma is sooooo fat that an x-ray won’t penetrate. Sadly, that’s no longer just a joke:
More and more obese people are unable to get full medical care because they are either too big to fit into scanners, or their fat is too dense for X-rays or sound waves to penetrate, radiologists reported on Tuesday.
With 64 percent of the U.S. population either overweight or obese, the problem is worsening, but it represents a business opportunity for equipment makers and hospitals, said Dr. Raul Uppot, a radiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. “We noticed over the past couple of years that obesity was playing a role in our ability to see these images clearly,” Uppot said in a telephone interview.
Radiologists have their own term for it when writing up reports: “These images are limited due to body habitus.”
Granting that having too much to eat, not enough hard work, and too much leisure time beats almost all of the maladies our ancestors had to grapple with by a mile, this is still rather pitiful.
