Arya M. Sharma, MD

Today I’ll make it real short: many of you may recall my recent paper, co-authored by Robert Kushner, President of the Obesity Society and Professor of Medicine at Northwestern University, on the Edmonton Obesity Staging system.

This story is covered this week in MacLeans Magazine - to read the full story click here.

Appreciate comments,

AMS, Ottawa, Ontario

Yesterday was the opening of the 1st Canadian National Obesity Summit hosted by the Canadian Obesity Network.

With over 450 registered attendees traveling from across Canada to the scenic Kananaskis Resort in Alberta, this is the first pan-Canadian Obesity conference dedicated to all areas of obesity research, prevention and management. 

Interest in this Summit was overwhelming with registration closing 10 days before the opening of the Summit due to exceeding the maximum capacity of the venue.

The Summit features over 70 oral presentations, 150 posters, and 7 workshops on everything from health policy to pediatric obesity and bariatric surgery.

At the opening event, Dr. Diane Finegood, former Director of the CIHR Institute for Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes, was awarded the Distinguished Researcher Award by Dr. Kim Raine, Chair of CON’s Science Committee - Congratulations Diane!

I look forward to a busy three days, as the best and brightest Canadian obesity researchers, clinicians and policy makers present their latest research, ideas and views on topics ranging from cell biology to city building.

AMS
Edmonton, Alberta

Apparently, many readers of this blog took the time yesterday to visit the Globe & Mail site to read my opinion piece on obesity.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog posting, I was very much prepared for the usual tirade of self-righteous, finger-pointing, ask-me-I-have-the-solution, send-everyone-to-fat-camp, tax-fast-food, obesity-is-a-myth-invented-by-big-pharma-type comments, which illustrate exactly the point I was making in the article: most people do not understand the complexity and heterogeneity of obesity and have no qualms about displaying their bias and discrimination against anyone with excess weight.

Interestingly, the public response was relatively mild with over half the responses (at the time of writing this post) being positive in that they either agreed with me or added an additional valuable insight.

For e.g., Ed Long notes, “The nuclear family is almost disintegrated, friendships are often superficial because we don’t have the time nor ability to empathize and act, and lifestyles today mean huge pressure to earn, consume and the resultant frenzied activity that leads to stress, poor eating habits, lack of leisure, and alienation from simple natural healers of fresh air, sunlight and natural sounds.”

Similarly, Keating Gun comments, “Teach empathy to all. End bullying in the workplace and at school. End child abuse and neglect. Then obesity will recede into the past.”

These are clearly comments from folks, who realize the close link between obesity and mental health, the importance of family, and the need for work-life balance.

I also received countless personal e-mails from friends, colleagues, and readers of my blog, who thought my commentary was “on the spot” - thanks to all of you for writing. One particularly enthusiastic reader even wants to discuss my article in a course she teaches at the university.

So what can an article like this hope to achieve?

One reader put it as follows: “Changing attitudes and beliefs will take a lot of repetition of the right messages through many channels. Every message is like a pebble dropped into a pitcher of water - with time, the pebbles will displace the water.”

Thanks to all the responders - I will certainly do my best to keep those pebbles coming.

AMS
Edmonton, Alberta

OK, I am not actually on Oprah (yet?) - rather, this post is only about comments I was asked to make about Oprah’s “catastrophic” weight regain by Judith Timson, who interviewed me for her column, which appeared in yesterday’s Globe and Mail.

To read what Judith (and I) had to say - click here

Last week, Yoni blogged about the same topic - for his take on Oprah - click here 

I think Oprah has made the same mistake that most people make - they think there somehow must be a “cure”.

Unfortunately, there isn’t - there are only treatments - when you stop the treatment, the weight comes back - ALWAYS!

End of Story!

AMS
Edmonton, Alberta

BEST HEALTH BLOG FINALIST: The second round of voting is on - please vote AGAIN for your favourite health blog by clicking here

Last week I blogged about the recent Supreme Court ruling mandating that airlines accommodate oversized passengers.

This ruling was picked up by international media, especially in the US, where in light of their own obesity epidemic, this ruling attracted substantial attention.

In fact, I was interviewed by MSNBC for my take on this, especially with regard to the question how airlines should determine who would qualify for an extra seat and who would not.

My simple solution, as reported by MSNBC was as follows:

“You can’t bring it down to a BMI. People’s body shapes are different.” Instead, the chair of obesity research at the University of Alberta suggests a solution inspired by the baggage sizers already in place at many airports. Instead, Sharma would like airlines to place an airplane seat in the terminal — “somewhere that offers travelers a bit of privacy.” Then, if it’s not obvious that a traveler won’t fit in one seat, they can sit in the sample seat. “If they don’t fit in the seat, then they’re too big and they’ll need to have that extra seat. At no cost. It’s not rocket science.”

Obviously, other “experts” had other suggestions including bringing in doctors’ notes or simply increasing the seat sizes for everybody. For a full report on this story click here.

If readers of this blog have any other suggestions - I’d love to hear them.

AMS
Edmonton, Alberta