Weight and Watch

For a long time obesity was never looked at as a detrimental disorder and for most, it is still an underrated issue. However, obesity is a leading cause of a variety of chronic diseases, and therefore has a substantial impact on patients morbidity. Most commonly, obesity leads to the development of Type 2 Diabetes mellitus (T2DM), dyslipidemia, hypertension and cardiovascular disease. A study showed that the rate of breast cancer was over two times higher in obese women (BMI > 30 kg/m2) as compared with their normal weight counterparts. The rate of breast cancer was over two times higher in obese women (BMI > 30 kg/m2) as compared with their normal weight counterparts.According to World Health Organisation (WHO) data, obesity has more than doubled since 1980 worldwide. According to estimates presented by WHO for India in 2005 there were 22 per cent overweight men and 21 per cent of overweight women over 30 years old. It was also projected that by the year 2015 the prevalence of overweight subjects will increase by around 40 per cent reaching 31 per cent of men and 29 per cent of women, respectively. These predictions also indicate that a rapid increase of weight problems will continue in India.“Conventional methods of treatment have poor effectiveness in providing long term weight reduction. Bariatric surgery is the only intervention, which demonstrated highly significant effects in long term reduction of excess weight loss (EWL) in patients with morbid obesity,” says Dr Abhay Agrawal, Obesity and Bariatric surgeon at Asian Heart Institute and Seven Hills Hospital. Bariatric surgery is the term given to surgical procedures that lead to a reduction in a patients calorie intake by restricting food intake to the stomach or modifying the anatomy of the gastrointestinal tract. Among the most popular procedures are: sleeve gastrectomy (SG), roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) and mini-gastric bypass (MGB). “Bariatric surgery is associated with the resolution of diabetes in 81 to 100% of patients one year after surgery. Even hypertension was resolved in 60-95% of patients. Additionally, studies investigating bariatric surgery reported resolution of metabolic syndrome, sleep apnea, gastro-esophageal reflux disease, arthralgia and asthma,” adds Dr Agrawal.According to estimates presented by WHO for India, there were 22 per cent overweight men and 21 per cent of overweight women over 30 years old. It was also projected that by the year 2015 the prevalence of overweight subjects will increase by around 40 per cent reaching 31 per cent of men and 29 per cent of women, respectively. These predications also indicate that a rapid increase of weight problems will continue in India.