obesity

Obesity Must Be Recognized As a Disease

Robert Cucin MD JD MBA Diabetes, metabolic syndrome, obesity ,

In a recent article in the Lancet, it was pointed out that Portugal has officially recognized Obesity as a chronic disease since 2004, but remains the only country in Europe to do so.

Although the UK as a whole does not recognize obesity as a disease, the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network did in 2010. The American Medical Association officially recognized Obesity as a disease and 2013 and the Canadian Medical Association followed suit in 2015.   In Canada, many Canadians who need obesity treatment must still pay for care because federal and local governments have not officially recognized the position of the Canadian Medical Association which has also recognized Obesity as a disease.

Recognizing Obesity as a treatable disease rather than a failure of will or a character flaw allows attention to be directed at correcting the chemical imbalance, a series of morbidies resultant from an accumulation of “belly fat, ” the visceral fat buried deep within the abdomen – sleep apnea, GERD, hypertension, Type 2 Diabetes mellitus, and an increased propensity for autoimmune diseases and cancers.  This visceral fat acts as an evil gland pouring its noxious cellular hormones directly into the liver and hijacking the body’s metabolism.

Recognizing Obesity as a disease clearly has economic consequences for national health care policies and insurance premiums in general.  But are not the impairments of GDP resulting from an impaired labor force and societal costs of ignoring the problem likely to be far greater if the disease is not recognized and treated early?   For example, the resultant Type 2 Diabetes is the most frequent cause of kidney failure requiring dialysis, the indication for over half of non-traumatic amputations, and a frequent cause of blindness.  These complications alone have devastating financial and social consequences.

Of course, Obesity must be recognized as a disease by all nations and attention directed to its early recognition and treatment.    This writer always capitalizes the “O” in Obesity to call attention to that fact and indicate it as such.

McKinsey’s Obesity Prevalence Projections May be LOW!

Robert Cucin MD JD MBA bariatric surgery, Diabetes, metabolic syndrome, obesity , ,

McKinsey Global Institute has projected that by 2030, 50% of the world’s population will be obese and the annual cost of Obesity-related disease expenditures will have risen to $17,000,000,000,000.

An article in the Arab News reported that 70% of the Saudi’s are obese.   With Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes galloping along in developed nations, the terrifying fact is that McKinsey’s projections may underestimate the problem!

Let us hope that, by allowing us to directly and safely remove the visceral fat that is the origin of the problem, Endoscopic Visceral Lipectomy (“EVL”) can avoid the progression of Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes and reverse it, and give us a weapon to slow the rising prevalence of this disease.  I entreat all reading this post to help make BioSculpture Technology’s DPO a success so we may be able to offer EVL to the 2.1 Billion people about the globe who may benefit from it.  Your investment may be both impactful and profitable.

Uncoiling the Tightening Obesity Spiral

Robert Cucin MD JD MBA bariatric surgery, Diabetes, obesity , ,

ABSTRACT

While an underweight prevalence was once more than double that of obesity, now more people are obese than underweight.  Obesity is one of the leading causes of preventable death in the world. There are an estimated 2,100,000,000 obese people worldwide and that number is forecast to grow to 51% of the world’s population by 2030.  Escalating obesity-related disease costs threaten to bankrupt the world’s healthcare systems.

The author reviews some of the causes for the increasing prevalence of this disease, identifies opportunities to intervene to prevent its progression, and discusses possible methods that may avert further increase in the overall prevalence of obesity in the general population.

VIEWPOINT

2,100,000,000 people or nearly 30% of all people about the globe are obese with the U.S. population being the most obese.  Not one country has achieved success in reducing obesity rates.1 Although some models suggest leveling off may limit the prevalence to a more modest 42%, linear trends forecast 51% of the world’s population is forecast to be obese by 20302. Obesity related diseases include gastric reflux, sleep apnea, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, autoimmune diseases and cancer, heart disease, strokes, and most significantly type 2 diabetes mellitus.  In a report published November 20, 2014, McKinsey Global Institute estimated worldwide annual Obesity related disease costs reached $2,000,000,000 and are forecast to grow by 9.6% annually to $17,000,000,000 in 2030, threatening to bankrupt national healthcare systems. 

In the vast majority of circumstances, diet and counseling are less successful than weight loss surgery as long-term solutions3,4 and successful treatment requires a multidisciplinary approach.5 However, in spite of the increasing obesity problem, the number of bariatric surgeries performed annually remains limited to a very small portion of the afflicted population.

Established surgical options are either restrictive or bypass in nature.  These surgeries involve cutting into the bowel, rearranging the body’s alimentary plumbing or leaving behind a foreign body to force the patient to eat less or make food wind up in the toilet incompletely digested, with potential of creating nutritional cripples.  The number of bariatric surgeries has plateaued with annual costs exceeding $1,500,000,0006 and was estimated at approximately 196,000 by the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery for 2015 with Roux-en-Y and gastric banding losing popularity in favor of gastric sleeves.  They reported revisions have more than doubled between 2011 and 2015 and comprise almost 14% of all such surgeries.  The low plateau evidences patient and physician dissatisfaction with the costs, risks and long-term sequelae of current surgical options. Read more