What is obesity? How is it treated?

Doctor Khuram Hassan MBBS, FCPS, gave information about obesity and its treatment.

 

What is obesity?

Nutrition is an indispensable need that starts from the mother's womb and continues until the end of a person's life. In order for the person to grow and develop physically and to continue his life as a healthy and productive individual for a long time, he must take the necessary nutrients regularly and in sufficient quantities. With the use of sufficient and balanced nutrients in the body, the individual can continue his life in high standards.

In the daily life of the individual; there is a need for the energy that varies according to age, gender, physical activity, genetic and physiological characteristics.

In order to maintain a healthy life, it is necessary to balance the energy taken with the energy expended. The fact that the energy taken in daily life is more than the energy spent causes the unspent energy to be stored as fat in the body. Storing excess energy as fat in the body also raises the risk of obesity. In a more general definition, obesity is an excessive accumulation of fat in the body. Apart from this, obesity is a problem that is directly related to genetic, familial, psychological, and environmental effects.

Obesity is one of the most important health problems of developed and developing countries today.

 

What are the factors that cause obesity?

Today, both business and social life are getting easier due to the changes and advances in technology. This facilitation significantly restricts the daily activities of individuals.

Sedentary life is one of the biggest causes of obesity. In addition to the sedentary life of the individual, excessive weight gain by irregular and bad nutrition also raises the risk of obesity. The World Health Organization has defined obesity as the accumulation of excessive fat in the body at a rate that can impair health.

Health problems caused by obesity

If precautions are not taken against obesity, the person will also experience various health problems. These:

• Heart attack risk and coronary artery disease
• Severe sleep apneas and various breathing problems
• Having a stroke due to the risk of stroke
• Diabetes
• Hypertension
• Vascular occlusions
• Fatty liver
• High blood fat (triglycerides and cholesterol
• Sexual dysfunction

Obesity is one of the main drivers of health problems listed above.

How is obesity treated?

Basically, obesity treatment is divided into two as medical treatment and surgical treatment. As in all branches of medicine, preventive health services and precautions are taken before the problem develops are very important. However, classical methods such as diet, exercise, and drug treatments do not work well in individuals with obesity problems due to many factors.

1. Medical nutrition therapy (Dietary therapy)

Medical nutrition plays a leading role in obesity treatments. With this method of nutrition;

• It is aimed to reduce the body weight to the level required for height. Medical nutrition treatments are specific to the individual.
• The slimming diets to be applied in the treatment should be in compliance with the principles of adequate and balanced nutrition.
• The purpose of medical nutrition is to give the person a correct eating habit and to maintain this habit throughout his life.

2. Exercise therapy

The purpose of exercise therapy is to reduce adipose tissue and abdominal fat with physical activity. Exercise therapy is a supportive treatment method for medical nutrition therapy. With exercise therapy, patients with obesity problems are prevented from gaining weight and weakened.

In exercise therapy, adults should exercise between 30 and 45 minutes every day. Regular walking at a moderate pace is the main factor in exercise therapy. With exercise therapy, it is aimed to keep the individual who has an obesity problem physically active every day.

The exercise program recommended for the obese individual should be individual. At the same time, the program should not bore the person and should be made in accordance with the daily life habits of the individual. 

3. Pharmacological treatment (Drug therapy)

Drugs in pharmacological treatment to be applied to obese people should only be used under the supervision of a doctor. The drugs that the person takes unconsciously can cause many side effects. The medicines used should be safe in terms of health should be suitable for the cause of obesity and should not be addictive. In order for drug therapy to be successful, the patient must also continue the medical eating habits and exercise therapy. Likewise, it is very important to have a regular doctor's check-up.

 

4. Surgical intervention 

Surgical treatment in obesity is divided into two:

Bariatric surgery

The main purpose of surgical treatment is to reduce the amount of food taken with foods, to suppress the patient's appetite and to disrupt the absorption of some of the foods eaten. The main purpose of all these procedures are to make the person more easily satiated with less food, since the daily energy attempt will be restricted, the person starts to burn fat deposits and thus loses weight.

The reason why the success in obesity surgery is around 95% and it is the most successful treatment among known weight loss methods is that the process is managed by the stomach volume and the surgical operation rather than the personal preferences of the individual. However, after the surgical operation, the person will be full with a small portion and will not feel hungry. Therefore, obesity surgery is the most successful and healthy weight loss method.

Reconstructive surgery

The purpose of reconstructive treatment is to remove the fat tissues that occur in various parts of the body locally. Reconstructive treatment is aesthetic. With this treatment, it is aimed to reduce the excess fat only in a certain body location of the patient, or it is not a weight-loss a method in general.