By Adele Robinson, Sky News Correspondent
Sky News is following four people as they embark on a mission to lose excess weight to find out whether diets really hold the key to tackling Britain's obesity epidemic.
Some £5.1bn a year is spent by the NHS on problems caused by eating too much and not taking enough exercise - and experts warn it will be completely swamped if action is not taken.
Latest figures show the number of hospital admissions linked to obesity in England rose tenfold in the 10 years to 2012-13 - from 29,237 to 292,404.
Tom Sanders, emeritus professor of nutrition and dietetics at King's College London, told Sky News the NHS could not cope with the increased demand for surgery to help with weight loss.
"Unless obesity can be successfully prevented, it will overwhelm the NHS," he said.
However, an even greater burden is type 2 diabetes, which can cause a host of life-limiting and deadly conditions, including strokes, heart attacks and cancer.
Something undeniably needs to be done, but does the diet industry hold the answer?
As part of a series of reports looking at the truth behind dieting, Sky News is following four people who badly want to lose weight.
Safira Ali, 32, weighs more than 17 stone and wants to shed the pounds to have children.
Hywell Roberts, 33, weighs 15 stone 9 pounds and is concerned about his long-term health.
Michelle Okpocha, 47, weighs over 15 stone and says she was lighter when she was pregnant.
Philip Wark, 38, weighs more than 18 stone and believes he is living "on borrowed time".
Sky will follow them as they each try different medically-supervised diets to see whether they can achieve their goals and go on to keep the weight off.
Politicians agree it is a huge problem but are divided when it comes to how to deal with it.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt says part of the solution relies on early intervention.
"I think the shocking statistic is that 9% of children enter primary school clinically obese and 19% leave obese. That is just not acceptable and we need to do a lot more."
He added that "it's not necessarily one thing that would work everywhere" but there needs to be encouragement for "much closer engagement between NHS and the school system".
Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham told Sky part of the answer lies in "exercise on referral or on prescription".
"So instead of people being put on medication, people are put on specialist weight management and exercise courses to break the cycle and get control," he said.
"The sustainability of the NHS is a major question here. I believe that physical activity is the cheapest route towards a sustainable NHS in the 21st Century."
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Obesity Boom 'Threatens To Overwhelm NHS'
Dengan url
http://cucikakiku.blogspot.com/2015/01/obesity-boom-threatens-to-overwhelm-nhs.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Obesity Boom 'Threatens To Overwhelm NHS'
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Obesity Boom 'Threatens To Overwhelm NHS'
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar