METABOLIC SURGERY

Obesity, vanity and disease

Obesity is a major risk factor for many medical conditions; especially type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease. It is for this reason that obesity is now identified as a major public health issue. If it was not for its substantial impact on health, rather than its mere cosmetic importance, obesity would not be on the public health agenda, would remain in the glossy, vanity magazines and would be the subject of dubious commercial medical practices, as it was 30 years ago.

Despite the contradictory opinions regarding the status of obesity as a social, versus a medical, condition, the World Health Organization (WHO) has already designated obesity as a disease, and its prevalence to be of epidemic proportions. Obesity and related conditions fall into the category of ill-health defined by WHO as non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and avoidable chronic diseases.

It is now formally defined as a disease of a ‘classic’ type, being a physiological debilitation and malfunction. However WHO is keen to point out that obesity is also a lifestyle disorder, having social and psychological ramifications, and thus connotations for management.