Puget Sound Surgical Center

The World Health Organization has projected that over seven hundred million adults will become obese by 2015. With obesity comes the risk of contracting type 2 diabetes.

In a race to develop drug therapy treatments, several pharmaceutical companies are close to releasing versions of their weight loss pills for obese patients with diabetes. Orexigen Therapeutics Inc the makers of Contrave, Vivis Inc. the makers of Qnexa and Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc. the makers of Lorcaserin, are all attempting to bring new obesity drug treatments to the market with a FDA regulatory decision expected in the fall of 2010 on the feasibility of approval.

Initial studies have proven to be promising with patients losing as much as 5% of their body fat during the initial studies. Besides losing weight, patients also received the benefit of reducing their blood glucose levels as compared to placebo test groups.

These initial findings show the potential for drug therapy on obese patients to help control their weight as well as their blood sugar levels.

A recent report published by the European Health Journal stated that impoverished people are more likely to become obese than those who are wealthy.

The study is in direct contradiction of the idea that in Europe, poverty results in starving people. This is in direct contrast to some African countries where the least expensive foods are also the least nourishing, lacking proper calorie intake – resulting in starvation. However, in Europe and other western cultures, the least expensive foods are also the most calorie dense so the impoverished are more at risk to becoming obese.

Healthier food, by contrast, are more expensive, and during the current global recession many of the poor have been forced to eating processed starches like pasta and rice as a common everyday staple – which once consumed is converted to sugar. A continual diet of starch causes the body to store fat and increases the desire to eat as well – perpetuating the rise in obesity.

The food choice of the poor, out of necessity, has also been responsible for an increase in Type 2 related diabetes. With the continual global increase in health care costs and a projected increase in obesity related illnesses, society needs to wake up and pay attention to this fact and look for alternatives ways to properly feed the poor or pay heavily later to treat the affects of obesity as it relates to their diets.

CNN – Reports on the controversy regarding the need for medical insurance to pay for weight loss surgery procedures for the morbidly obese. The debate arrises from the notion that a person’s obesity is a result of personal responsibility and not any known naturally occurring medical condition. However, medical insurance companies do not deny medical treatment due to lung cancer if the person was a chronic smoker all their life.

By reimbursing for weight loss surgery, overall health care cost would be reduced significantly since surgery patients would be less likely to obtain a secondary diseases like high blood pressure, stoke, heart attack, edema and diabetes once the weight comes off.

Most experts believe that there would be a national reduction of health care costs since less money would be spent on treating morbid obesity related diseases which in turn would also help to reduce insurance premiums.

The April 20th, 2008 episode of 60 minutes on CBS showcased the incredible benefits of gastric bypass surgery to what some claim to be a cure for diabetes. The cure is not attributed to the weight loss that results from the surgery but the surgery itself.

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