Saturday, February 2, 2019

Obesity: Diagnosis and Treatment


Obesity is the appearance of excess fat deposits in organs and tissues. This disorder manifests in the form of weight's increase a person by 20% or more from the average index. Disorder related with growth of volume adipose tissue.

Contents:


  1. Disease diagnosis.
  2. Obesity treatment:
    1. Diet.
    2. Exercise and activity.
    3. Medications.
    4. Surgical intervention.
  3. Obesity prevention.
  4. References.



The appearance of overweight significantly increases the threat of coronary heart disease, stroke, myocardial infarction, atherosclerosis, and hypertension. Also obesity enhances the risk of developing diabetes, kidney and liver pathologies. Therefore, it's very important to quickly establish the correct diagnosis and begin obesity treatment.
Let's consider these questions in more detail.

Disease diagnosis.

Obesity is a specific disease. Initial diagnosis occurs within the first admission at the doctor. During the study doctor draws attention to the anamnesis and genetic predisposition of the patient. He determines the maximum and minimum weight after reaching the age of twenty.
It’s equally important is the duration of obesity, food preferences, the presence of additional diseases and lifestyle features. Experts also calculate the body mass index to know degree of obesity.
For most adults, having a BMI of 18.5 to 24.9 means you're considered to be a healthy weight. A person with a BMI of 25 to 29.9 is considered to be overweight, and someone with a BMI over 30 is considered to be obese. While BMI is a useful measurement for most people, it's not accurate for everyone [1].
Expert calculates a coefficient for determine distribution of fat deposits. It equal to ratio of the circumference of the waist and hips. If a woman has figure above 0.8, this indicates the development of abdominal obesity. The doctor puts this diagnosis to men, when coefficient exceeds 1. Nutritionist appoints the next series of surveys to determine the cause of obesity:
- diagnosis of liver functions;
- diagnosis of the thyroid gland; - test for lipids;
- general urine analysis;
- clinical blood test;
- test for determinie degree of obesity; 
- ultrasound examination;
- MRI or CT for determine the amount of fat;
- conducting of differential diagnosis with other diseases. They include ascites, acromegaly, and Cushing's syndrome;  

Obesity treatment.

Obesity treatment begins with adjusting the lifestyle of a person and his diet. The patient must implement the following principles for maximize the effectiveness of treatment:
  • independetly control the amount of eaten food;
  • keep the level of physical activity;
  • prevent possible relapses;
An effective method of therapy is to reduce the body weight of a person by 5% of the total weight within three months. Patient need to adjust the obesity treatment process, if the weight stops the decreasing. In some situations, the treatment process should be completely changed.
There are many weight loss programs, which include three components:
  • definition of goal;
  • stage of active weight reduction;
  • stage of results consolidation;
Ideally, such a program should be implemented during the year. If a person doesn't have enough willpower, the treatment can last a long time. it's worth noting , that conservative therapy will be successful only by complex approach. It must necessary include adherence to a special diet, regular physical exercises and using of medications.  

Diet.


It's important to move on to a balanced diet for cope with obesity. Rigid diets provide for a sharp reduction in calories. However, appetite increases after returning to the old ration. The food begins to be better absorbed, and person gains more weight than before the diet. Therefore, it's important to carefully analyze and compose individual diet, considering weight, age category, eating habits.

Menu must contain a lot of fiber and vitamins. Also of no small importance is the consumption of biologically active components. All these substances are present in fruits and vegetables, cereals, whole grains, nuts, greens. It's important to limit the intake of easily digestible carbohydrates. They include sweets, sugar, pastries, pasta and bread from the highest-grade flour.

Proper nutrition with physical exercises will be most effective for obesity treatment.


Exercise and activity.



Increased physical activity or exercise is an essential part of obesity treatment. Most people who are able to maintain their weight loss for more than a year get regular exercise, even simply walking. To boost your activity level: 

  • Exercise. People who are overweight or obese need to get at least 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity physical activity to prevent further weight gain or to maintain the loss of a modest amount of weight. To achieve more-significant weight loss, you may need to exercise 300 minutes or more a week. You probably will need gradually increase the amount you exercise as your endurance and fitness improve.
  • Keep moving. Even though regular aerobic exercise is the most efficient way to burn calories and shed excess weight, any extra movement helps burn calories. Making simple changes throughout your day can add up to big benefits. Park farther from store entrances, rev up your household chores, garden, get up and move around periodically, and wear a pedometer to track how many steps you actually take over the course of a day [2].   

Medications.


Medications should only be used as an adjunct to diet modifications and an exercise program. Like diet and exercise, the goal of medication treatment has to be realistic. With successful medication treatment, one can expect an initial weight loss of at least 5 pounds during the first month of treatment, and a total weight loss of 10%-15% of the initial body weight. It is also important to remember that these medications only work when they are taken. When they are discontinued, weight gain often occurs [3].

Medications for weight loss have pronounced side effects. Therefore, they can cause serious harm to the human organism. The most popular drugs include the following:

  • Lorcaserin;
  • Phentermine;
  • Orlistat;
  • Liraglutide;

A specialist prescribes any of these drugs.

The doctor also can prescribe drugs, incoming in amphetamine group - Regenon, Fepranone, ect. Their action is based on reducing sense of hunger, speeding up the saturation process. Of great importance is the use of psychotherapy means - conversation, hypnosis. They all help to change stereotypes of habitual eating behavior and radically change the way of life.

Surgical intervention.


This type of obesity treatment includes two varieties - liposuction and bariatric surgery. In the first case, fat is sucked off with a special device. Bariatric surgery can have several types:

  • gastric banding. In this case, a regulating silicone ring is placed on the upper part of the stomach;
  • sleeve gastrectomy.Surgeons remove part of the stomach;
  • gastric bypass. Doctors divide the stomach into two sections using special titanium clips;
  • using intragastric balloon. Specialists reduce volume of the stomach;
  • biliopancreatic diversion (BPD). The procedure resembles a gastric bypass surgery, but it has certain features;
All these procedures have the risk of complications - impaired absorption, the development of ulcer or cancer stomach. Sometimes such interventions lead to a fatal outcome during the operation. Such operations are usually performed laparoscopically method for reduce the likelihood of complications. In this case, it's not necessary to make a cut. However, surgical treatment is not highly effective.
Obesity treatment can show good results at early diagnosis of the disease. The overall mortality rate is reduced by about 20% with a decrease of body weight by 10%. In additional, death risk due to development of diabetes is reduced by 30%. The threat of lethal outcome decreases by more than 40%.

Obesity prevention.

Prevention of obesity can be primary and secondary. Primary is aimed at preventing obesity in individuals with a normal body weight, but due to certain reasons prone to the appearance of metabolic disorders of this type. Secondary prevention is a set of measures for individuals with an overweight. The main task is to prevent the progression of obesity in the future.
Theoretically, no person is subject to obesity. However, there is circle of persons, which have a higher risk of obesity. Among these persons are:
  • People with a predisposed heredity.
  • Humans leading a sedentary lifestyle.
  • Food gourmets.
  • People suffering from diseases of the endocrine system, gastrointestinal tract, leading to obesity.
  • Persons experiencing regular stress due to professional or domestic reasons.
  • Humans, which are at a certain vital or physiological stage - pregnancy, lactation, menopause, old age.
  • People, which take drugs that lead to obesity - hormonal, psychotropic drugs, contraceptives.
The following measures to prevent obesity will be very relevant for these categories of people.
  • Nutrition. A person should accurately ensure that the number of calories doesn't exceed the daily rate.
  • Limiting alcohol intake. Alcohol abuse is linked to obesity. Alcohol increases the appetite. In addition, it reduces the sensitivity the center of saturation in the hypothalamus.
  • Physical activity. Sports help to burn calories and fatty tissues of the body.
  • Normalization of the regime and improvement of psycho-emotional status. Sleep disturbance, negative emotions, and frequent stress can increase appetite.
  • Treatment of concomitant diseases. Type 2 diabetes mellitus, insufficient thyroid function, gastroenterocolitis need timely and adequate treatment.
Conducting all these preventive measures requires adherence to certain rules, methods, and even restrictions. In addition, the patient should be consulted with specialists - an endocrinologist, a nutritionist, a sports trainer, etc.

References.


  1. Check https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/obesity/diagnosis/ and know more facts about diagnosis of obesity.
  2. You find useful material about the disease treatment by following https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/obesity/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20375749.
  3. I recommend visiting the link https://www.medicinenet.com/obesity_weight_loss/article.htm about obesity problems.
  4. Read about https://pharmacity.net/buy-orlistat-online.html where to order Orlistat pills at 60mg and 120mg dosage online by the discount.



We add up-to-date information in the articles to make the blog interesting and useful for readers:
  • 02.02.2019. The author wrote about obesity prevention for people from group of risk.

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