Too fat for needles

Sploid
Nov. 28, 2005

Fat-bottomed gals are driving doctors bats.

New studies prove most medicine injected in the buttocks doesn't make it to the muscle, where it's supposed to go.

Instead, the thick layers of fat on most gals' backsides prevents the needle from reaching the muscle.

A study done in Dublin, Ireland -- where gals are far less fat than American women -- showed that 23 out of 25 patients didn't get the full dose of medicine. Instead, the medicine got stuck in globs of fat, never to escape.

"There is no question that obesity is the underlying cause," researcher Victoria Chan said.

Vaccines and many other medicines are generally administered with a jab in the rear, experts say. But few are getting the intended dosage.

While women had the biggest butts, more and more men are growing huge backsides, too.

Some 44 percent of men aren't getting the right dose due to thick layers of fat.

Longer needles are necessary to penetrate the ever-enlarging butts of Americans and Europeans, Chan said.