Obesity Education

You may have seen the #obesityeducation hashtag in the media over the past week or so. It is a campaign concerning all aspects of obesity, and how people can be educated to understand it more fully, and how it can be treated successfully.

Our very own Mr Shaw Somers is the President of the British Obesity and Metabolic Surgery Society (BOMSS), states:

“The stomach is not just a dumb tube that digests stuff. In fact, it’s a complex communication centre.

“After surgery we see changed activity in the brain’s addiction centres and increased activity in its satisfaction centres. After surgery, patients find they simply don’t want to eat; that the voice that says ‘eat’ has gone.”

Speaking about some of the medical conditions that are associated with obesity, Mr Somers commented:

“These conditions are seen in people in their 30s and 40s who will have decades of being ill; people with diabetes, for example, can face years of worsening health. Their health and quality of life is impaired and the cost to the public purse is very high.

“It isn’t a quick fix. Surgery is just a tool to help people to understand their relationship with food and that obesity is the result of this not working. The reasons why people overeat are complicated – and that’s why successful surgery is always supported by an ongoing package of care from specialists in dietetics and psychology.”

Here at Streamline Surgical, we offer free, weight loss surgery information evenings and have extensive, online catalogue of facts about weight loss surgery and obesity on our website.