obesity surgery risks

Obesity Rates Triple In Developing World

Statistics show the problem of obesity now affects almost twice as many people in poor countries than in rich ones.

The number of overweight and obese people has reached almost one billion in the developing world – overtaking rates in industrialised countries, a report has found.

The report by the UK’s Overseas Development Institute said the number of obese people has more than tripled in the developing world since 1980.

In 2008, more than 900 million people in poor countries were classed as overweight compared with around 550 million in high-income countries – almost twice as many.

Steve Wiggins, the report’s author, said: “The statistics are quite sensational, it is a tripling of the number of people who are considered overweight and obese in the developing world since 1980.

“That takes the number to more than 900 million and that is more than the number of overweight and obese people that we have in the high-income countries, which is probably around 570 million, something like that.

“It is a very rapidly emerging problem and it is now of a very large size.”

Rates of obesity are still rising in richer countries, but not at the same rate as in the developing world.

Two countries with particularly high obesity rates are China and Mexico, where the numbers of overweight people have almost doubled since 1980.

In South Africa, obesity has risen by a third and now has a higher rate than the UK.

North Africa, the Middle East and Latin America all have similar overweight and obesity rates to Europe.

Explaining the developing world’s obesity epidemic, Mr Wiggins said: “It is associated with incomes and urbanisation and a more sedentary lifestyle, so it is those emerging countries which have done the best at raising their incomes.

“It’s the middle-income countries, it is the Chinas, it is the Mexicos, which are the countries which are seeing the highest rates of overweight and obesity at the moment.”

The report predicts that if current rates continue there will be a huge increase in people suffering certain types of cancer, diabetes, strokes and heart attacks.

It also warns that governments are not doing enough to tackle the crisis, partly due to politicians’ reluctance to interfere at the dinner table, the powerful farming and food lobbies and “a large gap” in public awareness as to what constitutes a healthy diet.

Countries singled out for praise in tackling obesity are Denmark and South Korea.

In Denmark, laws against trans-fatty acids have made Danish McDonalds among the healthiest in the world, while in South Korea the government launched a large-scale public education campaign 20 years ago which has turned around obesity rates.

Mr Wiggins said: “A few decades ago the government of Korea said we must encourage our traditional foods, which are low in fats and oils, high in vegetables, high in sea food and so on.

“And there was a lot of public education, a lot of training and a sense that Korean food is good for you.”

Source: Sky News

Weight loss surgery can increase pain killer dependence

Weight loss surgery can increase pain killer dependence

Initially, researchers assumed that when patients underwent weight loss surgery, they would decrease their dependence on pain medications over time. The reason for their assumption: Obese patients who shed pounds should experience a reduction in pain caused by excess weight in areas such as the knees and back. Instead, however, a new study has revealed that weight loss surgery actually may increase dependence on pain killers, reported U.S. News on October 1.

“Our premise was that because patients who are undergoing bariatric surgery were undergoing such dramatic weight loss, whatever chronic pain they were going through would be relieved and their need for medication would be reduced,” said study author Marsha Raebel, of Kaiser Permanente Colorado in Denver. “We were very surprised to find we were totally wrong. Not only did their chronic use of opioids not go down, it actually went up.”

Researchers discovered that bariatric patients who already used opioid painkillers such as OxyContin and Vicodin increased their drug intake by 13 percent during the first year after surgery. And rather than decrease their dependence as they lost more weight over time, these patients had increased their drug intake by 18 percent three years after.

In the study, which was reported in the Oct. 2 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers emphasized that weight loss resulting from procedures such as gastric bypass typically relieves pain linked to the stress that extra pounds place on the knees, back and other joints. But that relief did not influence how much pain medication the patients took.

“We have patients who have pain that simply doesn’t respond to weight loss,” Raebel said. “If the patient thinks that’s the reason they’re going to have bariatric surgery, there should be some counseling to explain their pain may or may not get better after surgery.”

And the experts stress that setting a goal of taking fewer chronic pain killers is essential. Since the 1980s, opioid prescriptions in the nation have quadrupled, as has accidental opioid overdose deaths.

Raebel believes that obese people actually experience pain in a different way.

“Folks who are obese are more sensitive to pain and have lower pain thresholds than people who aren’t obese,” she said. “This altered pain processing continues even after they undergo bariatric surgery.” Therefore, she thinks that their drug usage might increase to help them deal with their continued sensitivity to pain.

Bariatric physician Dr. Brian Sabowitz offered another interpretation of the study.

“Narcotics may not be absorbed the same way after a gastric bypass as they are before a gastric bypass,” said Dr. Sabowitz, who practices in San Antonio, Texas, and serves as an adjunct assistant professor of medicine for the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. “Maybe one reason narcotic use increased is because people were getting less narcotics

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