Obesity study earns hefty praise

Sharma said health authorities are often resistant to change and fall victim to “group think”, but he said Northern Health was willing to take a chance by getting away from the concept of healthy weight and adopting the idea that people can be healthy at any size.

“This is the fastest I think I’ve ever seen emerging research find its way into a policy document,” Sharma said, noting some of the ideas in the paper come from research published in academic journals less than a year ago.

MP proposes National Health and Fitness Day

Dr. Arya Sharma, chair of obesity research and management at the University of Alberta, called the bill “simplistic.”
“Policies to get Canadians moving and eating better are great – but reducing obesity simply to a matter of diet and exercise is far too simplistic and does a disservice to the many people struggling with excess weight,” he said.

Inadequate sleep can lead to obesity, study suggests

And there’s a third factor at play, suggested Dr. Arya Sharma, who holds a chair in obesity research at the University of Alberta in Edmonton…“We’ve … known for a long time that people who don’t get enough sleep tend to be less physically active during the day,” Sharma said.

Edmonton company helping obese people sleep easier

“I think there’s a huge market for this because like it or not, we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of Albertans or Canadians who weigh more than 250 pounds,” Sharma said. “It’s a good example of how an organization like the Canadian Obesity Network and obesity experts can partner with local industry to create products that are meaningful. We’re quite proud of this.”

People who are obese face higher rates of pain: study

Chronic, daily pain affects every dimension of a person’s life, says Dr. Arya Sharma, scientific director of the Canadian Obesity Network. “It affects your sleep, it affects your quality of life, your energy levels, your professional life. “It’s a major barrier for someone trying to manage their weight — and a major driver of weight gain in a lot of patients.”

FDA approves lorcaserin, first weight-loss drug since 1999

As a means of boosting weight loss results without surgery, lorcaserin “addresses one of the greatest therapeutic gaps we have in medicine,” said Dr. Arya M. Sharma, an obesity expert and professor of medicine at the University of Alberta in Canada.