Dr Phil Lockie

Obesity

Australia like most western societies is currently faced with an epidemic of obesity and obesity related diseases, which will soon overtake smoking as the number one cause of premature or early death. Well over half the population are now categorized as being at least overweight and sadly around 5% of the population can be categorized as being morbidly obese which at least doubles the annual risk of premature death. In terms of health risk, not only is absolute weight important but also the relationship between weight and body proportions such as height and abdominal circumference.

Doctors tend to classify levels of obesity based on a ratio between a patients weight divided by there height squared to give a number known as a Body Mass Index or BMI.

Whilst BMI is not always accurate especially in individuals with large amounts of muscle mass such as professional athletes for most non-active individuals it is a pretty good indicator of disease risk. Individuals with a BMI over 35 are classified as being morbidly obese which puts them at significant risk of having or developing obesity related diseases.

Morbid Obesity is directly linked to many diseases including diabetes, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol levels, sleep and respiratory disorders, which when mixed together form a deadly combination which can eventually lead to heart attacks, strokes and a number of other fatal conditions.

Beyond these obesity often also causes and contributes to musculoskeletal problems such as osteoarthritis and lower back pain which ultimately makes the individual less mobile, and unable to exercise which again contributes to a vicious circle of more weight gain and increasing levels of obesity. Many patients are also surprised to here that many common cancers such as breast cancer and prostate cancer are also more common and much more difficult to treat in obese patients. Other conditions such as infertility, sexual dysfunction, and depression are also very common in obese individuals and all contribute to an understandably frustrating and poor quality of life.

So if there is so much at risk and so many good reason’s to lose weight why don’t people just go on a diet and simply lose the weight?. Well most obese people have tried that simple theory not just once but multiple times and whilst most people can lose some weight, most people who are morbidly obese cannot lose enough weight to make a significant difference and sadly very few can keep it off for prolonged periods of time.

There are many reason why people struggle to lose and keep weight off, some of them are due to the immobility associated to obesity, some are simply because people have a tendency to return to the same lifestyle which caused their obesity initially. More recently Scientist’s have also discovered hormones such as Ghrelin that are secreted in increasing levels as people lose weight. Hormones like Ghrelin stimulate areas within the brain, which control appetite, so that as people lose weight their appetite unfortunately increase’s so that eventually many people break their diets and start to put the weight back on.

Unfortunately the large majority of morbidly obese individuals ultimately fail diets as well as medical treatment with medications such as xenical, and return to their pre-diet weight or worse end up regaining even more weight. Obesity surgery is the only treatment, which has been proven in long term trials to produce significant and sustained weight loss over many years in individuals suffering from morbid obesity.

If you would like to read more about surgery follow this link to information on Obesity surgery.

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