Almost two in three adults and one in three children and youth are overweight or living with obesity in this country, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada. Nearly all of them would have heard at one point in their lives: “Eat less, move more and you won’t struggle with your weight”. They may even have heard it from their family doctor. If only it was that simple. And for some people it is, but for others, no matter how many diet and exercise programs they’ve been on, they struggle. They also blame themselves, and see their excess weight as a personal moral failure.
But science has finally figured out that obesity is, in fact, a complex, multifactorial, chronic and relapsing disease, and the brain and genetics play a big part in who will be affected. According to Obesity Canada, our brain’s hypothalamus regulates calories in and calories out to maintain weight, but that system can be disrupted by biological and environmental factors, which affect our feelings of hunger and satiety.
For those living with obesity, there is new, effective treatment to ward off those poor health outcomes, according to Dr. David Macklin, director of Medcan Weight Management and lecturer at the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine, as well as staff at Mount Sinai Hospital. He talked to me recently about the barriers and solutions to weight loss, as well as his own Macklin Method, a weight management program for patients and physicians. Click here to read his insights for my latest piece for Postmedia’s Healthing section.
Robin Roberts 