reactive medicine no more
Reactive medicine is how we practice medicine today. As health providers, we are trained in treating the complications of obesity from asthma to high blood pressure--not obesity itself. When is the last time your provider spoke to you about nutrition in detail? I see this day to day as an OB/Gyn where obesity related complications result in higher rates of Cesarean deliveries as well as high blood pressure complications in pregnancy. If we could focus instead on maternal health prior to conception, these results would be different.
why hasn’t medicine addressed obesity more?
If obesity is the problem, it should be medicine's singular focus. Unfortunately, it's not. A significant problem is our societal view of obesity as an individual problem, blaming it on poor self control. It becomes our own fault. This view sees obesity as not a disease. We then think if we can't lose weight, we didn't work hard enough. Furthermore, little research has been performed in obesity itself. But remember, it's not your fault.
obesity is an issue for everyone.
Obesity is a critical problem for the health of the individual as well as our nation. 75% of Americans are now either obese or overweight. 33% of our children suffer from being overweight or obese.
Obesity is now also a concern for our nation’s military, where many young adults are unfit to serve. Additionally, the Department of Defense health care costs are increasing. In 2014, costs associated with obesity among active duty personnel and military families was $3.3 billion, more than complications of tobacco or alcohol. In the adult population, estimates for the complications of obesity range from $147 billion to nearly $210 billion per year. In addition, obesity is associated with job absenteeism, costing approximately $4.3 billion annually and with lower productivity while at work, costing employers $506 per obese worker per year.
As physicians, the above numbers are staggering. As mothers, we are worried for the health of our children. But no fear, for there is help available.
times are changing
Obesity is a disease, no different than diabetes and high blood pressure. To shift the focus away from self blaming and understanding this issue as a medical problem, there are now professional organizations such as the Obesity Medicine Association (OMA) dedicated to eradicating this disease:
The Obesity Medicine Association's definition of obesity is “a chronic, relapsing, multifactorial, neurobehavioral disease, wherein an increase in body fat promotes adipose tissue dysfunction and abnormal fat mass physical forces, resulting in adverse metabolic, biomechanical, and psychosocial health consequences.”
Furthermore, the physicians associated with pillarMD are Diplomates of the American Board of Obesity Medicine, where extra training and ongoing education is required in the field of obesity medicine. We focus on the pillars in obesity medicine due to the multifaceted nature this disease:
nutrition
physical activity
habit
medicine
The doctors that founded pillarMD reject the notion that the only medicine for people is reactive medicine and promotes treating the disease--obesity. Our goal is also to remove the stigma of obesity; our nation and healthcare should address obesity as if it were a disease like diabetes. Let’s stop reactive medicine and tackle the problem of obesity head on today!
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