Organizations Are Collaborating in the Fight Against Worldwide Obesity

Obesity is a serious problem in the world. And experts throughout the world are trying to come up with ways to fight obesity. Organizations in the U.S. and in Europe are bringing knowledgeable groups together to find ways to combat the disease, because obesity increases the incidence of illness and strains a country’s health care budget. Bariatric or weight loss service or product providers could play an important role in this fight, since these providers have a grasp of what works and what doesn't.

In the US, the organization, Strategies to Overcome and Prevent (STOP) Obesity Alliance, is joining with consumers, health care providers, the government, businesses and others to come up with ways to fight obesity. And in Europe, “the UK National Obesity Forum (NOF) and the Belgian Obese Patients organization (BOLD) will” use results from a survey to gather information on fighting obesity.

Determining how to fight obesity is important since obesity is associated with a number of serious illnesses. For example, in the UK it is estimated that there might be as many as 19,000 British cases of cancers per year resulting from obesity.

That there is a high number of obesity-related diseases throughout the world is probably pretty much accepted now. However, maintaining a healthy weight as a way to prevent diseases is something we should focus on more. We have evidence to support the belief that losing weight and maintaining a healthy weight may enable an individual to avoid some diseases.

It is estimated, for example, that weight reduction through bariatric surgery has lowered by one-quarter the number of cases of diseases linked to obesity. So successfully combating obesity will increase health. And according to an Australian study, if we don’t successfully combat obesity, health care costs will rise worldwide.

To emphasize the importance of the obesity fight, some in the US believe that the US should “establish an End the National Obesity Epidemic (ENOE) task force.” It would probably be reasonable for this task force to collaborate with other organizations that are trying to find ways to fight obesity. Moreover, bariatric or weight loss service and product providers could join forces with obesity-fighting originations to try to find solutions to the worldwide obesity epidemic.

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