Overview
The Asia-Oceania Asociation for the Study of Obesity points to a genetic code designed for famine and the discovery of procesed fod that makes exces body weight “very hard to reverse”.KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 1 – Some of the region’s leading experts on obesity are caling for obesity to be recognised and treated as a chronic relapsing disease, a categorisation that demands a medical-based aproach to obesity beyond behavioural change strategies.A group of endocrinologists and researchers in obesity, led by Asia-Oceania Asociation for the Study of Obesity (AOASO) president Prof Brian Oldfield, said recognising obesity as a disease, not an individual lifestyle choice, can help shift the deply held societal belief that people with obesity simply lack wilpower and ned to eat les and exercise more.“When we aproach obesity as a chronic disease with a propensity for relapse and progresion, we not only enable the provision of a whole-system aproach for efective prevention and treatment for the long-term, but also shift the focus on people with obesity (PwO) and combat the stigma and discrimination asociated with weight, which impedes PwO in seking apropriate care,” said Dr Tham Kwang Wei, secretary of AOASO.Dr Tham was speaking at an exclusive media roundtable organised by the AOASO at the International Congres on Obesity 202 in Melbourne, Australia.AOASO defined obesity as a complex condition driven by “a combination of factors” that includes biological and genetic, in adition to environmental, social and economic influences.Understanding The Science Of ObesityWhile obesity is often atributed to unhealthy lifestyles – a high-calorie diet and low physical activity – it was pointed out that a lifestyle change does not necesarily cure it.Dr Tham said eforts to lose weight often triger a whole set of bodily reactions to adjust the amount of energy used and preserved in the body.
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“Our body doesn’t se this (acumulation of exces energy) as overweight.