As many of us Americans know we are by far the most obese country in the world, although other countries are now starting to have problems of their own. We now have a new epidemic with childhood obesity, and I wonder how do other countries react to weight problems. I decided to look at countries that are on the same level of economic development as our own, and I came across How the Swiss Do It and they have a 70% success rate of individuals not only loosing weight but keeping it off (which is the biggest challenge), while in America we have a 5% success rate. Just looking at the figures one can easily tell who has the better weight loss program.
When you read over the article you see that these people have a 2 week hospital stay where their calories are reduced and they are to start an exercise regiment. They do this along with cognitive therapy, and art therapy. The cognitive therapy helps individuals get to the root of why they are over eating in the first place. I think this is a brilliant idea, when I get stressed out I want to eat, when I get depressed I want to eat and I'm a worrier so I am stressed all the time, this type of therapy would be a benefit to learn better habits and other ways of venting stress.
Mayo Clinic and researchers in Norway, Mexico and Australia have taken another approach which is a surgical procedure that is less invasive than bariatric surgery. It's a device that stimulates nerves in the stomach to make a person feel full, this procedure is reversible and have not yet been approved for actual use.
I like the way that the swiss do it, the only problem is most of these countries the health care is provided for by the government, so even with health insurance in America this kind of treatment would be very costly and that is if insurance even covers it. I plan to write a letter to my Dr. and asking her what she thinks of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment