Picture This: America's Big Fat Future of Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes

Facing the Facts: The High Cost of Obesity in America

Thanks to our friends at  MedicalCodingCareerGuide.com for this infographic!

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Today's new York Times reports on studies recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine, "Surgery on Diabetics May Be Better Than Standard Treatment".  

Although the effectiveness of metabolic surgery on resolution of type 2 diabetes is good news, the bad news is, most Americans cannot afford the cost of bariatric surgery, which ranges from $10,000 for adjustable gastric banding to more than $30,000 for the RNY gastric bypass.  

The good news: the world's leading metabolic surgeons are located in Mexico, Costa Rica and Spain, where the cost for the procedure is less than half the U.S. health system.  The best news: Health Travel Guides, a San Francisco-based healthcare technology firm, will guide you every step of the way!

Find out if you are a candidate for weight loss surgery by clicking on this secure link to fill out a personal medical history . A Health Travel Guide will be in touch to answer your questions about traveling for bariatric surgery abroad - something more than 7,000 Americans have done!

• Experts Agree: Metabolic Surgery More Effective Managing Type 2 Diabetes Than Diet, Meds
• Brown Fat, Triggered by Cold or Exercise, May Yield a Key to Weight Control
• Diabetics Have Less Opportunity, Lower Lifetime Earnings
• Minimally Invasive Weight Loss Surgery Alternatives 
• The Noninvasive Solution to Weight and Diabetes Management
• Young, Obese and Getting Weight-Loss Surgery (travel4health.wordpress.com)
• Drinking Water Helps Lower the Risk of Diabetes, Helps Dieters Lose Weight (travel4health.wordpress.com)

Fat and the Shame Game: Plus Sized Model Speaks Out

Georgia has a message for the overweight, and there's nothing sweet about it.

A television advertising campaign with a harsh anti-obesity message ("Stop Sugarcoating It, Georgia)"  has been receiving criticism, ironically from the overweight stars of the ads themselves.

Model Beth Anne Sacks (pictured at left) says in a New York Times interview that the approach is too negative to inspire overweight people to change people's behavior.

Sacks also calls the ads misleading (some of the ads showed a 'virtual amputation' (via photoshop) of the leg of another model.

“If they think they’re going to reach overweight people with these ads, they’re not going to do it.  ~Plus-sized obesity campaign model

"It Has To Be Harsh"
Linda Matzigkeit, vice president of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, defends the campaign's harshness. "If it's not, nobody's going to listen," says Matzigkeit. 

Some public health experts do not agree, however, saying the negative approach could be counterproductive when it comes to childhood obesity, pointing out that the commercials and billboards do not give families the tools they need to attack the problem.

You Might Be Surprised....at what Dr. Oz says about weight loss surgery as a solution to obesity!

Others say the campaign will further stigmatize obesity and make it even less likely for parents and children to acknowledge that their weight is unhealthy and should be addressed.

What do you think?  Do anti-obesity messages need to be harsh to be effective? What is the alternative?


Check out what we’re reading:
Brown Fat, Triggered by Cold or Exercise, May Yield a Key to Weight Control
How LAP-BAND® Is Like a Band-Aid®
Diabetes, Obesity and Superheroes
Minimally Invasive Weight Loss Surgery Alternatives
The Noninvasive Solution to Weight and Diabetes Management
More Fat News and This Time it’s Good!