Surviving Cancer Doesn’t Make You An Oncologist!
In my TEDx talk “How to Lose 50 Pounds and Keep Them Off” released earlier this week, I recommend that people struggling with obesity seek help from a health care professional trained in chronic disease management. Given that most of what we deal with in medicine is chronic disease, one would imagine that almost any health professional can give competent advice on living with a chronic disease. Unfortunately, while this may be true for diabetes or hypertension or most of the other common chronic diseases that virtually all health professionals at some time in their careers will have learnt to manage, very few will have any experience at all in treating obesity – let alone even thinking of obesity as a chronic disease. It is therefore not surprising that when it comes to weight management people often turn to lay “experts” who proclaim themselves as “experts” simply because they have somehow managed to lose weight and are (at least for now) managing to keep it off. Often, these “experts” (not seldom with the help of a savvy publicist) will launch a lucrative speaking business including authoring self-help books, offering diet/exercise plans, appearing on TV talk shows, endorsing supplements or promoting whatever it is they believe helped them lose their weight. Unfortunately, as I hear over and over from my patients, these self-proclaimed “experts” who, having “conquered” their obesity, have now embarked on a mission to help you “conquer” yours, are about as effective as any other commercial fad diet. This is because, we have long known that in obesity, what works for one person may be entirely ineffective in the next. Just because you lost weight by following (insert your approach here), does not mean that you have found the Holy Grail of weight management and are now somehow professionally qualified to offer your help to everyone else. Living with heart disease does not make you cardiologist! Surviving cancer does not make you an oncologist! Losing weight does not make you an obesity specialist! This is not to say that the “patient” experience is not important or that “peer support” cannot be a valuable tool in chronic disease management. Indeed many successful weight management programs including Taking Off Pounds Sensibly or Weight Watchers rely heavily on “peer support”, in that groups are generally run by lay people who are themselves “affected”. While this makes a lot of sense, it does not replace the need for a… Read More »
Obesity As A Chronic Disease Is Not Doom And Gloom
The last time I checked, my TEDx talk “How To Lose 50 Pounds And Keep Them Off“, had over 3,500 views on its first day! While that is far from going “viral”, I do admit that it’s a lot more than I expected. Although the overwhelming response and comments were positive, some viewers appeared frankly disappointed, not to say frustrated by the notion that obesity, once established, behaves like a chronic disease. This may in part be due to the fact that, despite all evidence to the contrary, many people continue to believe (as suggested by the diet, fitness and weight-loss industry) that “permanent” weight loss is within anyone’s reach (it isn’t) and reaching your “dream weight” means winning the battle (it doesn’t). But, I also believe that some of the frustration that comes with seeing obesity as a chronic disease for which we have no cure (which happens to be the definition of “chronic disease”), stems from the notion that living with a “disease” is terrifying and hopeless (it isn’t!). In fact, most of what we deal with in our health care systems are “chronic diseases” – the exceptions being largely limited to accidents, acute infections and some cancers – these we can “cure”, by which I mean that we treat them for a given period of time after which they ceases to exist and the patient can be considered “cured”. Unfortunately, as important as these “cures” may be, they constitute a rather small proportion of what goes on in the health care system. It is fair to say that for the vast majority of medical conditions, we may have treatments, but most certainly no “cures”. However, this is not as depressing as it may seem. Indeed, it is one of the great achievements of modern medicine that we have turned diseases that would have been fatal in the not too-distant past (e.g. type 1 diabetes, coronary artery disease, HIV/AIDs, breast cancer), into conditions where, with proper treatments, most patients can enjoy decades of meaningful and productive life, despite living with their “chronic” disease. Not that the treatments are always easy or cheap or well tolerated – but, when applied and adhered to properly, they generally do their job of allowing patients to go about their lives in a fairly acceptable manner. So the idea that living with a chronic disease is all doom and gloom is certainly not true – ask anyone living with well-controlled diabetes, hypertension,… Read More »
May 21 Is European Obesity Day
Here an announcement/reminder for my readers in Europe: Please support European Obesity Day European Obesity Day (EOD) takes place this coming Saturday, 21 May, and is aimed at raising awareness and increasing knowledge about obesity and the many other diseases on which it impacts. EOD is a major annual initiative for the European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO) and so would like to ask you to support the activities by joining in the conversation on social media. It will help us to reach more of the policymakers, politicians, healthcare professionals, patients and the media who we are targeting with important messages about the need to take obesity more seriously. There are several ways you can show your support: Like the European Obesity Facebook Page Follow EOD on Twitter @EOD2016 Join the conversations on twitter using the hashtag #EOD2016 Pledge your support on the European Obesity Day website Visit the EOD website to see what we have been doing Encourage your friends and colleagues to support us too In line with the Action for a Healthier Future theme for EOD 2016, we hope we can count on your support. @DrSharma Edmonton, AB
Developing A Research Agenda In Weight Bias
Last year, the Canadian Obesity Network and the Werklund School of Education and departments of Psychology and Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary co-hosted the 2nd Canadian Summit on Weight Bias and Discrimination in Calgary, AB. The proceedings of this two-day summit, which was attended by 40 invitees representing education, healthcare, and public policy sectors in Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario are now published in OBESITY. The 40 attendees included 14 researchers, 11 practitioners, and 15 policy makers, although some participants represented multiple perspectives. On the first day, speakers from across Canada presented their research on the prevalence and consequences of weight bias, as well as on interventions to reduce weight bias in the education, healthcare, and public policy arenas. These daytime sessions concluded with an evening public outreach event in the form of an expert round table titled “Fear of Fat: Promoting health in a fat phobic culture” at a local community center with 100 attendees. The second day consisted of a round table of facilitated discussions to identify what research question(s), if answered, would make the greatest impact on weight bias reduction efforts in Canada. The key outcome from these deliberations include the identification of six research areas that warrant further investigation in weight bias: costs, causes, measurement, qualitative research and lived experience, interventions, and learning from other models of discrimination. It also became evident that progress in this field requires attention to three key issues: language matters, the voices of people living with obesity should be incorporated, and interdisciplinary stakeholders should be included. A 3rd Summit on Weight Bias and Discrimination that will build on the learning form the previous workshop will be held in Edmonton, May 26-27, 2016. It will be interesting to see what progress has been made in field since the last meeting in 2015. @DrSharma Edmonton, AB
Hands-On Obesity Training in The Bariatric Simulation Suite, Edmonton, May 24, 2016
Later this month, the Canadian Obesity Network, in partnership with the University of Alberta’s Health Sciences Education and Research Commons, will once again be offering its one-day, intensive hands-on Obesity Certification Program for health professionals. As on previous occasions, this course offers an immersive educational experience on practical aspects of obesity management and the role of interprofessional bariatric care. The practical course provides a hands-on learning experience with standardised patients and includes experiential learning in challenges people living with obesity face in their home and clinical settings. These include exercises in the Bariatric Speciality Care Suite and Smart Condo. Group size is limited, but a few spots remain. More information is available here. @DrSharma Vancouver, BC
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