Daily Telegraph 21/04/08
Obese people may be deliberately trying to put on even more weight in order to qualify for weight-loss surgery on the NHS, it has been claimed.
Demand for surgery to reduce the size of the stomach has soared in some areas, meaning only those patients who are grossly overweight can be considered.

Guidelines say that anyone who has a Body Mass Index - calculated by dividing weight by height squared in kilos and metres - of more than 40 qualifies for weight-loss surgery on the NHS if they have failed to lose weight in other ways.

20 February 2008 Swansea Evening Post
Obesity services in Wales are among the worst in the country, a Swansea surgeon has claimed. Professor John Baxter was responding to a study which has found many obesity units are refusing surgery for patients on the grounds of cost.

The study found that hospitals and primary care trusts had seen a 650 per cent rise in patients being referred for surgery over the past five years.

Six out of 10 consultants approached at 20 hospital trusts across England said they were not given the resources to cope with the huge rise in demand.

By Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor- Daily Telegraph
Last Updated: 1:55am GMT 04/02/2008
More than one million prescriptions are being written for obesity drugs costing £47m a year while others are denied medication for cancer, it has been revealed.
The NHS bill for obesity drugs could pay for a new children’s hospital every two years.

Meanwhile women with advanced breast cancer are being denied Avastin because it has not yet been evaluated for use on the NHS.

The drug has already been turned down for use in advanced colorectal cancer because it is not cost effective.

The Hospital Group are one of the first medical organizations to provide what are referred to as “balloon implants” - a new revolutionary weight loss treatment, ignored by the NHS, which could save thousands suffering from the effects of obesity and its associated diseases.

The Hospital Group, the UK’s leading provider of weight loss surgery, are set to insert silicone balloons into the stomachs of people who are over weight with a BMI of 30+ - making them eat less, feel full and re-learn eating habits over a period of six months.

Friday, February 08, 2008

By Victoria O’Hara - Belfast Telegraph
An Ulster woman last night said she was left devastated after being told - on the very day of the life-changing surgery she had waited months for - that it was only performed in England.

The woman, who is from the Antrim area, had her bags packed ready to undergo bariatric surgery - an elaborate procedure designed to promote weight loss - in the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast on Wednesday.

She had been preparing for almost four months after receiving a date for the operation in October.

11/02/2008 Daily Mirror 11/02/08
The NHS is facing a “perfect storm” of rising obesity, an ageing population and higher cost of drugs, a report warned last night.

Independent thinktank Reform said in its study that unless big changes are made the public will get worse treatment for more money.

It claimed: “Research points to a ‘perfect storm’ of rising demand.”

The think-tank argues that by 2031 obesity will be rife and there will be a third more adults of pension age. The Government is “in denial” and the remedy would be to allow in more private companies.

By DENISE GRADY New York Times
Published: January 23, 2008
Weight-loss surgery works much better than standard medical therapy as a treatment for Type 2 diabetes in obese people, the first study to compare the two approaches has found.

The study, of 60 patients, showed that 73 percent of those who had surgery had complete remissions of diabetes, meaning all signs of the disease went away. By contrast, the remission rate was only 13 percent in those given conventional treatment, which included intensive counseling on diet and exercise for weight loss, and, when needed, diabetes medicines like insulin, metformin and other drugs.

Channel 4 News 16/10/07
Less than one in ten women who lose weight by dieting manage to keep it off, according to a new survey.

Only 9% diet successfully while the remaining 91% put the fat back on and are doomed to a cycle of calorie counting for the rest of their lives.

Researchers found women used a range of substances - including class A drugs - to lose weight. Almost four out of 10 (37%) had tried slimming pills, laxatives (26%) and amphetamines or cocaine (15%).

Three out of 10 (31%) women admitted they had made themselves sick after eating and one in ten (10%) said they would have a gastric band fitted.

23 August 2007

The average adult in the UK is drinking an extra day’s worth of calories every week through alcohol, according to a study by Standard Life.

The average adult is drinking enough lager, wine, cider and spirits to add almost 3,000 calories to their weekly calorific intake.

This is the equivalent to 500 calories above the average male recommended daily limit of 2,500 calories and 50% more than the advised maximum of 2,000 calories a day for a woman.

Annually UK adults are drinking around 155,000 calories through alcohol, adding to the country’s growing obesity problems. With 3,500 extra calories creating one pound of fat, adults are drinking enough alcohol each year to add 44lbs to their bodyweight, or just over three stone.

There are two Metabolic Hormones Controlling Appetite, Leptin and Grehlin

Leptin:
Discovered in 1994, signals the brain that the body has had enough to eat.
The earliest-discovered of these hormones, and the first hormone ever shown to have a direct role in appetite and weight control. The hormone is secreted in fatty tissue and released into the bloodstream.  However, as the amount of fatty tissue in the body increases, the body begins to “resist” the leptin.  Obese people often have extremely high levels of leptin circulating in the blood.  However, the brain “ignores” the leptin because  it has become desensitized to it.  For this reason, injecting leptin into obese people to “curb” their appetite has been shown to be ineffective.  Also, if obese people reduce fatty tissue by losing weight, it is not clear whether the brain ever recovers its normal sensitivity to leptin.