Is Obesity getting the proper attention? A noncommunicable disorder! 

A Middle aged came to the vascular surgery clinic with complaints of swelling of the ankles and legs. He belonged to a middle-income family works in private firm, which gave him Rs. 15000 per month. He looked frustrated and said that he visited many clinics for his leg problems with intermittent small ulcerations, pigmentation and swelling around the legs. He had to take rest very frequently and stay away from work due to the leg problems. He received local ointment applications, antibiotics and painkillers along with compression bandages.  He was weighing 95Kgs (BMI 35) and his previous doctor told him that his blood sugar was slightly raised but he was not diabetic. He was taking a tablet (losartan) to control blood pressure for the last 3 years. Color Doppler scan done three times in the past but there was no deep vein thrombosis and there were few varicose veins and there was reflux in two perforators.

Almost no week goes by without a new headline about obesity in the medical journals. This is surprisingly happening both in the developed and developing countries. The latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention figures for the US population in 2010 released in July are alarming: 12 states have obesity rates higher than 30% and no state had a rate lower than 20%. Since these figures rely on self-reported height and weight, they are likely to be underestimated. In the Lancet journal, Boyd Swinburn and colleagues report estimates of 1·46 billion adults and 170 million children overweight or obese worldwide in 2008. If we continue without successful interventions, the projections for 2030 estimated 65 million more obese adults in the USA and 11 million more in the UK alone with an additional 6—8·5 million people with diabetes, 5·7—7·3 million with heart disease and stroke, and 492 000—669 000 with cancer. The projected costs to treat these additional preventable diseases are an increase of $48—66 billion per year in the USA and £1·9—2 billion per year in the UK. Health systems everywhere are already struggling to contain costs. Without prevention and control of the risk factors for obesity now, health systems will be overwhelmed to breaking point. We should make a note of this enormous impact on the lives of the people and their socio-economic status across world if the people and governments fail to give proper attention and take weight reduction measures.