January 19, 2003, Article
Center for Diabetes

By Dr. Gulnar Poorsattar

Obesity, Diabetes, Lipid, and Heart

Many Public Health Officials and Organizations have tried to warn the public about the dangers of obesity. One of the strongest warning came from the US Surgeon General who stated that a failure to address overweight and obesity "could wipe out some of the gains we have made in the areas such as heart disease, several forms of cancer, and other chronic health problems."

Death due to heart disease has decreased by 9% but incidence of diabetes has gone up by 33%. Obesity among children has doubled. We are all well aware of relatively higher mortality rate, poorer quality of life, and substantial healthcare cost due to obesity.

We need to treat Obesity aggressively. There are several barriers to the treatment of Obesity. Those barriers are no different than what were faced by smoking cessation, cholesterol and diabetes management programs.

The pessimism about treatment outcomes, lack of long-term efficacy and high financial burden of Obesity care, has kept health professionals less aggressive in intervention.
First line intervention for obesity is nutritional counseling, exercise, and therapeutic life style changes. The results are only 10% reduction, but this is shown to be effective enough to improve diabetes control, blood pressure and cholesterol profile.

We need a public health approach to prevent Obesity and Diabetes. The public health approach targets behavioral, sociocultural, and environmental factors that contribute to obesity.
Genes may have individual susceptibility to weight gain, but the obesity epidemic is not due to genetic factors, since the increase in the rate of obesity is too abrupt. Current obesity epidemic is caused largely by an environment, that promotes excessive food intake and discourages physical activity.

Easy availability and marketing of foods, increase in the use of computers and television viewing, reduction of physical education in schools and physical activities at work. Food industry spends $26 billion on advertising annually. Los Angeles district schools sell $4.5 million worth of sodas annually. The National Soft Drink Association claims that obesity is about the couch and not the can.

Last year more than half Americans attempted weight loss and spent more than $33 billion on products and services. Nonetheless Obesity has continued and doubled since 1980.

We need neighborhoods more walk-able, safer and more integrated network of footpaths and bike lanes, increasing the range of healthy foods in schools and work cafeterias. We need an aggressive and steady approach in schools, homes, work place and at doctor’s offices. The need to prevent Obesity has become urgent.

Metabolic Syndrome: A Truly Deadly Quartet. Also known as Syndrome X. Insulin Resistance. Obesity, Hypertension, Cholesterol, and Glucose intolerance (borderline-diabetes) markedly increase the heart attack and death. They co-exist in 15-30% of Americans.
The best treatment is prevention in early stage. We recognize and treat all elements of this metabolic syndrome by aggressive and supportive techniques.
You have Metabolic Syndrome if:
Waist 35 inches in women and 40 inches in men
Triglyceride level more than 150
HDL in women <50 and in men < 40
Blood Pressure > 130/85
Fasting glucose > 110

Our Free Sessions* are open for the community:

– *Diabetes Screening on Mondays
– Cholesterol Clinic on Tuesdays
– Diabetic Foot Care Wednesdays a.m.
– *Insulin Pump Group on Wednesdays
– *Nutritional Class-Carbohydrate Counts on Fridays
– Gestational Diabetes session on Fridays

Call Center for Diabetes for Registration 805-653-5550

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