Fourteen Rotary Clubs in Rotary District 9141 in Rivers State and District Governor Nominee, Rotary District 3141Mumbai India held a webinar on obesity awareness and treatment with bariatric surgery.
District Governor Nominee Rotary District 3141, Rtn. Dr. Manish Motwani, a Bariatric and metabolic surgeon in Mumbai India described obesity as a killer disease and the number one causative factor in lifestyle illneses like hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, sleep apnea and cancer ailments.
He defined obesity as having excess fat and weight in body, wherein the energy coming inside the body is more than the energy spent.
The excess intake he says can be in form of excess diet, eating high calorie foods, irregular eating habits, eating more oily, spicy foods and sweets while decreased output of energy can be caused by reduced physical activity, increased reliance on automation and gadgets.
All these combined, that is increased energy intake with decreased energy output results in obesity.
Dr. Manish Motwani noted that obesity is a youth medical problem with far reaching consequences as it causes physical, medical, psycho-social problems and decreasing confidence in people.
“Over 68% of diabetics are obese, over 70 % of heart disease patients are obese, over 75% of sleep apnea patients are obese, over 78-80% of patients with breathlessness are obese so obesity is a huge medical problem and it is called the mother of all diseases and I feel we are hardly to doing anything conquer this problem. But I feel Rotarians through such small events can raise awareness about it and awareness about obesity prevention.”
Dr. Motwani added that obesity also contributes to infertility issues like hormonal imbalance and polycystic ovarian syndrome PCOS, especially among the females.
Another panelist on the webinar, Dr. Lotika Purohit, a Diabetologist and President , Rotary Club of Bombay Midtown, emphasised that obesity plays a role in increasing the risk of developing diabetes, which is on the increase in recent times.
Poor diets combined with lack of physical activities Dr. Purohit says leads to weight gain and fat collection around the abdominal areas particularly the liver and pancreas, which accumulates and reduces insulin sensitivity and resistance.
“This insulin resistance in turn causes weight gain as there is much insulin present in the body that is not utilized and slowly blood sugar level starts to rise, blood pressure starts to rise, lipid abnormalities are there and a host of other diseases set in.
This is usually what we call type two diabetes which previously occurs only in people above 60 years but slowly we are now seeing it in people as young as 15 years. This is how obesity is related to diabetes.” She says.
A solution to this according to Dr. Motwani needs to be approached scientifically by first knowing ones body mass index which is calculated with a persons weight (in kilograms) divided by the square of height (in meters).
“Anyone with 25 bmi is normal, 25 – 29.9 bmi is overweight and above 30 bmi is obese.
The purpose of today’s webinar is if we know obesity is a huge and serious problem then why don’t we take steps to treat obesity, treat heavy weight before a patient goes to a state where preventive measures can’t work.”
He advocated dieting and exercising and good behavioural lifestyle change to help reduce and maintain a healthy weight.
But given that a higher percentage of patients visiting the hospitals are overweight and moving towards obesity calls for awareness because as bmi rises, the propensity for developing lifestyle diseases also rises, addaming that, “Once a patient goes into obese category, the level of medical ailments also increases with a 52 percent chance of developing cancers.”
Dr. Motwani said weight management programs, diet and exercise, medication and bariatric surgery are some solutions to managing obesity and he gave an overview of different types of Bariatric surgeries and their success rates.
Dr. Lotika Purohit added that weight loss has seen improvements in health challenges brought on by obesity especially in diabetic patients as sensitivity to insulin starts working better, insulin resistance reduces and they are able to maintain blood sugar levels as normal and those on medication can start stopping the medication.
Clinical Nutritionist, Sneha Salian also on the panel noted that people with bmi less than 30 can manage their weight loss diet and exercise programmes but those with bmi above 30 can only do so with Bariatric surgery to effectively loss and maintain a health weight.
She advised eating a proper balanced diet in small and frequent meals to activate the body’s metabolism, maintaining that the right treatment given at the right stage at the right time, not only makes weight loss happen, even medical problems associated with also resolve.
Participating clubs include Rotary Club of Port Harcourt Garden City the lead host with Rotary Club of Port Harcourt Mother and Child, RC PH Esara City, RC PH Express, RC Bonny Island and RC PH Eco.
Others include RC PH Highrise, RC Grand Bonny, RC Rumuigbo, RC PH Orbit, RC PH Nkpolu- Oroworukwo, RC PH Top Health, RC PH Central and RC Woji Town.
