It was discovered that the patients who were recommended by their doctors to lose weight were around three times more likely to follow through and lose the weight than those patients who weren’t given any recommendations.
Experts stated that diagnosing obesity in patients, advising treatment and scheduling regular check ups was just as important as treating hypertension and diabetes. Experts have also urged doctors to include advising weight loss to overweight patients due to its link to serious health consequences such as diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, heart disease and certain cancers.
Statistics revealed that 30 percent of U.S. adults are afflicted with obesity.
The defense offered by doctors was that they didn’t feel they had enough knowledge on obesity to offer recommendations on it. Other experts claimed that doctors’ lack of recommendations regarding obesity stemmed from the absence of training and education on nutrition.
Yahoo! News April 19, 2004
While I agree that doctors should take obesity just as seriously as other chronic conditions, ultimately I believe it is up to the patient to take the initiative to make changes with their weight.
Some 97 million people in America are considered obese and that number is rising.
These are devastating statistics and the only way they will change is if people decide to start making healthier decisions regarding their health.
The good news is that overweight and obesity are nearly 100 percent preventable and if you fall into this category, you can help yourself by:
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