From my America Out Loud Pulse podcast with Dr. Dan Weiss – https://www.americaoutloud.news/the-epidemic-of-diabetes-and-obesity-daniel-weiss-md/
At its last count, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that 40 percent of U.S. adults age 20 and over, 21 percent of teens, and 14 percent of preschoolers are obese. A December 2019 study that analyzed 26 years of body mass index (BMI [the relation of weight to height]) data concluded that half of U.S. adults will be obese (BMI>25) by 2030. Some 25 percent will be severely obese (BMI>35). Moreover, less than 5 percent of adults get the recommended 30 minutes a day of physical activity. And even when people living in “food deserts” were presented with healthy options, only 10 percent changed their evil eating ways.
According to the CDC’s last comprehensive analysis, the annual medical cost of obesity in the United States to Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers was $147 billion in 2008. And the medical costs for obese people were $1,429 higher than those of healthier weights.
Rising rates of obesity have led to significant increases in the prevalence and incidence of type 2 diabetes Type 2 diabetes worldwide. In 2021, an estimated 536.6 million (10.5%) people aged 20-79 years were living with diabetes, a number that is projected to rise by 2045 to 783.2 million (12.2%).
The saddest development is the cultural normalization of obesity with lingerie models, singers, and television shows celebrating fatness. Do we high-five people with other lifestyle related conditions such as alcoholism, emphysema, or coronary artery disease? Of course not.
U.S. pharmaceutical companies spent $6.1 billion on direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising in 2017. Many ads feature chunky type 2 diabetics happily frolicking about, thanks to the drug company’s magic pill. The ads might as well say, “pass the chocolate cupcakes with statin sprinkles drizzled with insulin.”
Today we’ll talk about the causes of the obesity epidemic – and most importantly what we – doctors and patients — can do about it.
Bio
Daniel Weiss, MD, CDCES, is an endocrinologist and physician nutrition specialist in St. George, Utah, with Intermountain Health. Dr. Weiss earned his medical degree at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. He completed an internal medicine residency followed by a fellowship in endocrinology-metabolism at the University of Iowa Hospitals in Iowa City. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Obesity Medicine.
Dr. Weiss has served as a manuscript reviewer for Annals of Internal Medicine, the Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine, and the American Journal of Physiology. He has been the principal investigator for 90 clinical research projects, mostly for persons with diabetes and his work has been published in various medical journals.
His opinions on this podcast are his own and do not reflect the views of Intermountain Health, his employer.