I also read lots of stories in the press about people who have been morbidly obese and have managed to turn their lives around and lose huge amounts of weight. I find these stories inspiring and these people have my total and unconditional respect. When ever I run past an overweight jogger, trying their upmost to haul themselves around the local park, I want to shout out,
"You're doing great! Keep going!"
at the same time I fear for their knees and hip joints suffering from carrying the extra weight, but these people are trying their hardest to do something about their health, and that is amazing!
But is the system helping of failing these "fat warriors"?
We know... it's a fact that there is a severe obesity epidemic which is stressing our public health services to the limit. Being over weight or obese is not just an "unsightly" problem in a world where stick thin models are shoved under our noses every single day. A world where to be an actress you have to be a size 0. A world where young girls aspiring to be models are told that they have to lose weight from their already size 0 frames. Where eating disorders start as young as primary school. A world where HEALTH is not considered.
Being overweight or obese drastically raises your risk of pre-diabetes, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, heart disease, and some cancers, and young obese people are facing the prospect of dying young. So it is not something to be taken lightly.
As I said at the beginning, there are people who turn their lives around. They diet, and exercise and lose vast amounts of weight. Here I am not going to get into HOW they lose the weight. As long as you lose it to improve your HEALTH, then that is all that is important. However, lots of people (mostly those who don't have a weight problem) often criticize those who have gastric by-pass surgery, gastric balloons fitted, or stomach reductions done by the public health services. There are also lots of people who don't, like the woman who installed a treadmill in her garage as she was too embarrassed to go out in public because of her weight, and once she lost some, she started going out at night so no one would see her.
The thing is that treating a person who has serious illnesses such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease or cancer, COSTS A LOT OF MONEY and it isn't just a one off. Treatment of type 2 diabetes can go on for decades - the same for heart disease and cancer.
The cost of gastric band surgery on the NHS in England is roughly 6,000 GBP per surgery.
| Area of expenditure | Type 1 diabetes | Type 2 diabetes | Total cost | Percentage of costs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Source: Kanavos, van den Aardweg and Schurer: Diabetes expenditure, burden of disease and management in 5 EU countries, LSE (Jan 2012) | ||||
| Diabetes drugs | £0.344 billion | £0.712 billion | £1.056 billion | 7.8% |
| Non-diabetes drugs | £0.281 billion | £1.810 billion | £2.091 billion | 15.2% |
| Inpatient | £1.007 billion | £8.038 billion | £9.045 billion | 65.8% |
| Outpatient (excluding drugs) | £0.170 billion | £1.158 billion | £1,328 billion | 9.7% |
| Other (including social service) | - | - | £0.230 billion | 1.7% |
| Total | £1.802 billion | £11.718 billion | £13.750 billion | 100% |
So, to me, it is obvious that if you can reverse obesity at 6,000 GBP a pop then you will actually be saving money in the long run...
However, the problem doesn't stop there. There is a HUGE psychological problem involved in obesity and weight loss. Lots of obese and overweight people say that they have had social problems because of their weight, or have been passed over for a promotion or are unable to get work because of their weight. They are considered lazy and greedy by others who think that they should just stop eating so much and move more.
One thing that happens repeatedly is that when an overweight or obese person does finally turn his/her life around, in too many cases he/she is left with the most horrendous excess skin that sags and hangs from his/her leaner frames.
Put yourself in that position. For whatever reason you are obese... maybe it is because you have eaten too much for too long, or depression has caused you to comfort eat, or you have an illness or medication that causes weight gain... and you finally decide to improve your life and lose weight. You have spent at least a year if not more changing your diet, resisting temptation, forcing yourself to exercise and stay motivated watching that needle on the scale slowly going down.
But in the end you are left with literally kilos of sagging excess skin. Every time you look in the mirror you see this, it makes you feel unattractive, depressed and makes you wonder why you even bothered.
But in the end you are left with literally kilos of sagging excess skin. Every time you look in the mirror you see this, it makes you feel unattractive, depressed and makes you wonder why you even bothered.
Many people in this situation have commented that they were happier BEFORE the weight loss. That now their lives are blighted by this unsightly excess skin that they have to try and hide.
Skin removal surgery done privately can cost anywhere between 1,500 to 6,000 GBP. Lots of stories I read say how people have been denied excess skin removal surgery because of the cost. So a person does their best to lose weight and improve their health and not cost the public health services vast amounts of money in treatments for serious illnesses, only to be abandoned by the public health services - excess skin obviously isn't important enough. One woman was even told she couldn't have her excess skin removed because she HADN'T had a gastric band operation!
A person in this predicament has SAVED the public health services large amounts of money, and in my opinion should be helped to go that final step to making their turn around complete and having a happy and healthy person integrated into society.
How would you feel, if this was your story?
I can help you improve your health. If you would like to make an appointment with me either in person or via Skype, just send me an email to lucycarr@socialnutrition.com
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