Chennai: A recent survey has found that around 25 per cent men and 35 per cent women in Chennai are obese and the city is the capital of obesity among other metropolitan cities in the country.
In a conversation with News Today on World Obesity Day being observed today, Apollo Hospitals Institutes of Bariatrics director and senior consultant surgeon, Dr Rajkumar Palaniappan, shares how obesity has become a growing concern owing to lifestyle changes.
“As per the data of National Family Health Survey (NFHS), in the last 10 years, the percentage of people affected by obesity has doubled. Among women, it has rose to 28.2 per cent from 14.5, and among men, it is 30.9 per cent from 20.9,” says Dr Rajkumar Palaniappan.
“We recently did a study to identify the reason behind women being more obese and found that it is due to consumption of left-over food and lack of physical exercise that has led them to this state,” he adds.
In addition to adolescent obesity, the doctor states that obesity among children is also on the rise. Two decades ago, childhood obesity stood at one or two per cent, whereas it now stands at 20 per cent. He strongly suggests that the issue of exponential rise of obesity among children has to be addressed first as the chances of their facing life-threatening issues are more.
“The condition among adults is certainly treatable, but childhood obesity must be brought under the scanner right from the beginning to ensure that they are saved from morbid obesity and the chances are high if they are not medicated. The organs of the children also get affected if they are not given the first-line of treatment immediately,” cautions the doctor.
He further states that the condition has increased manifold due to consumption of carbohydrates in large quantities.
“Our body is predominantly made of fat mass than muscle mass (also known as lean body mass). Having said that, the in-take of carbohydrates must be limited which we have failed to do so in the past several years which has led to this alarming situation. This condition is predominantly seen among south Indians: people must understand this – reduce carbs-based food and shift towards protein-based diet to lead a healthy life,” he advises.
To tackle the issue, people these days are keen on reducing their weight just by dieting, for which the doctor states that it would not be fruitful if proper exercise plan is not followed.
“Initially, they would shed both lean body mass and fat mass. However, as they continue to do so, they start losing muscle mass which is essential for the body to perform various metabolic activities. This would result in accumulation of more fat mass and they would get a feeling that they are not burning the excess fat,” he points out.
The probability of the patient suffering from other complications such as diabetes, infertility, PCOD, depression is more. When the problem of obesity is addressed, he opines that all the other conditions can be dealt with easily.
Though bariatric surgery has been shown as one of the solutions to treat obesity, the doctor states that it should be the last resort. ”The first- and second-line of treatment – that is lifestyle changes, diet and exercise and medicines and non-surgical ways should be opted. When none of that works, we must choose bariatrics which comes with a fair share of complications.”
“The patient will have to be on multivitamin supplements for a prolonged period as the surgery causes nutritional deficiency which is the major downside of bariatric surgery,” he cautions.
He also feels that government intervention is of paramount importance in nipping the condition right in the bud. “Regulations must be followed in selling junk food and they must not be made available to children in schools. It must add subjects such as health education and home science in the curriculum,” he suggests.