First of all, let's accept that "obesity" is a disease. Obesity was defined as a "disease" by the World Health Organization in 1997 and the need for active treatment was emphasized. In other words, we know that obesity is a disease that needs to be actively treated, like cancer.
“Are obesity surgeries dangerous?” We've been hearing this question a lot lately. So is this true? Are obesity surgeries really dangerous? Or are we asking the right question?
Actually, this popular question is “how safe is it to live with obesity?” We need to ask the question together. In these days when we witness speculations and public opinion is inadequate and biased, I think it would be more accurate to give our answer entirely with scientific sources. Academicians like us asked all of these questions a long time ago and we received very solid answers based on scientific foundations. For now, our duty is to share these facts with you on the right platforms. For this purpose, I find it useful to explain the most important questions and the strongest known scientific evidence for these questions, item by item.
Obesity is one of the greatest health dangers witnessed by modern society
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Although it is reported that 2.5 million deaths worldwide annually are related to obesity, obesity is the second cause of preventable deaths in America after smoking.
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On the other hand, the frequency of deaths due to premature birth increases by more than 100% in obese mothers. The average life expectancy of severely obese individuals decreases by 9 years for women and 12 years for men.
It is known that 300,000 individuals die annually in the United States as a result of obesity-related problems. Obesity surgeries reverse this risk within 2 years.
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Diabetes disease (type 2 diabetes), which has increased at an alarming rate today, is much more common in obese patients and increases in parallel with obesity.
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It is known that 80% of type 2 diabetes patients are obese. While the number of type 2 diabetes patients worldwide was 366 million in 2011, it is thought that this number will reach 522 million in 2030. The relationship between obesity and type 2 diabetes It is particularly striking and frightening.
In Turkey, we can only perform 1% of the obesity surgeries that our society needs. We need to perform more obesity surgeries and save more people's lives.
When the number of obesity surgeries performed in European countries is compared specifically to our country, it is almost one percent of the rate needed by our society according to our country's population and the rate of obese individuals. It is seen that obesity surgery can be performed, and increasing this rate is of critical importance as it will save our country from a serious socio-economic burden in the coming years.
There is much more for the health of our people. It is essential that we perform obesity surgery at a higher rate.
According to statistics, obesity has risen to the 2nd place after smoking among the preventable causes of death, and for the first time in the world, the number of people dying due to obesity and obesity-related diseases exceeds the total number of people dying due to hunger. The fact that it has been overcome gives an idea about the true dimensions of the danger that is silently rising right next to us. Although there has been a 1000% increase in the number of surgeries in obesity surgery in the last 10 years, it is striking that only 2% of morbidly obese individuals in need of surgery can be treated worldwide. In recent statements made by some individuals, institutions or media organs; It is stated that obesity surgery is showing an uncontrolled and geometric increase, but it is ignored that this increase observed all over the world progresses in proportion to the increasing need.
In our country alone, the rate of highly obese individuals is 2.9% and approximately 2 million people are waiting for surgical treatment. . Considering that there are approximately 5000 general surgeons in our country and a very small portion of them are equipped with these surgeries, it is obvious that we need to make more efforts to treat our citizens who need obesity surgery.
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