New Delhi | Adopting healthy lifestyle habits and attitude change are crucial for tackling obesity, the incidence of which is growing in the country, experts have said at a summit held here.
According to National Family Health Survey 2019-21, around 23 per cent of Indians are obese and thus suffer from a multitude of health disorders because of the condition.
The Obesity Prevention Summit, 2023, initiated by the think tank Integrated Health and Wellbeing Council, was held on Saturday on the occasion of World Obesity Day.
Discussing the impact of obesity on the overall health of individuals, Dr Pradeep Chowbey, Chairman, of the Max Institute of Laparoscopic, Endoscopic, and Bariatric Surgery, said weight management can play a role in delaying the obesity epidemic.
Lifestyle change is also important and coupled with the right medical interventions, it can effectively increase the quality of life for patients, he said.
Vikrant Shrotriya, the managing director and corporate vice-president of Novo Nordisk India discussed the issue of obesity being a major risk factor for diabetes.
"Obesity and diabetes are closely related. India is already the diabetes capital of the world and obesity is seeing an exponential increase in the country.
"We at Novo Nordisk are focussing on research and development for both the conditions that are intrinsically linked to each other. We strongly feel that along with innovative solutions to the disorders, creating relevant awareness on lifestyle interventions can go a long way in addressing the crisis," he said.
According to WHO, too much body fat increases the risk of non-communicable diseases, including 13 types of cancer, type-2 diabetes, heart problems and lung conditions.
The theme this year for World Obesity Day, which was marked on March 4, was about changing perspectives, avoiding shame and blame and minimising efforts to address obesity as a complex systems issue that needs coordinated action by all stakeholders across all levels of the healthcare ecosystem.
Initiating the summit, Kamal Narayan, the CEO of IHW Council said, "Apart from having a genetic disposition to obesity, Indians have started leading an extremely sedentary lifestyle along with a rapid influx of junk food. Urbanisation has been a major contributing factor as far as obesity is concerned." The concluding session focussed on breaking the partnership between diabetes and obesity.
Through the session, doctors discussed the role weight plays in type 2 diabetes, how diabetes and obesity in combination can lead to complications and recent treatment choices that manage body weight along with blood glucose in type 2 diabetes.
Dr Banshi Saboo, the president of the All India Association for Advancing Research in Obesity (AIAARO) said a preventive, multi-sectoral approach starting right from school and further creating relevant awareness is the need of the hour as far as obesity is concerned.
Several researches have found that both diabetes and obesity rates have continued to increase in tandem and pose an increased danger of mortality and also an increase in health care costs for the country.
Dr Sujoy Ghosh, Diabetologist and Endocrinologist, Department of Endocrinology, Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research, Kolkata remarked, "Genetics and obesity are the most significant risk factors... weight loss is important not only for diabetes remission but also for improved metabolic paraments." "Diabetes plus obesity raises a host of complications. Fortunately, we have done a lot of progress in diabetes management in the last decade. However, judicial use of drugs along with lifestyle modifications should be ensured to reap sustainable benefits," said Prof Dr Anoop Misra, the director of NDOC.
