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December 2022
February 2019
The Face of Weight Loss in 2019
It’s not hard to imagine that many people have started the year wanting to lose weight – just like every year, right? Hundreds of gym memberships, exercise regimes, and new diets are committed to at the start of the month, but by this time are out the door. What could possibly be different in 2019? In this article we take a level-headed look at the state of weight loss treatment in 2019. New technologies, approaches and data will be considered as we give you a good image of what to expect this year in the world of weight loss treatment.
Let’s take the UK as an example. In the UK between 2016 and 2017 there were 617 thousand admissions for obesity with the NHS – a very overworked system that has worked tirelessly to find a good solution within weight loss. The causes are many, and they continue to be the same in 2019; namely bad diet and lack of exercise. Too many people are consuming foods doing their weight no good, such as dairy, oils and saturated fats. Whilst more people are cutting down on these foods, their contribution to obesity remains similar. Lack of exercise is nothing new, and since office work lifestyle people are more sedentary than ever. However, these are not the concern of this article. How then, are the NHS treating this? And what are individuals doing about it?
An article from late 2018 finds that weight loss surgery is still the most efficient way to beat obesity. The NHS themselves use surgery techniques most frequently, and these have been found to have the best long-term results for patients with obesity. Some studies show that diet changes and lifestyle guidelines can also help, but that surgery has the highest satisfaction rate, as well as being most economic for institutions.
Another development to look out for in 2019 is the rise of weight loss drugs, which are slowly becoming more popular in the USA. With more than 90 million cases of obesity, the USA is one of the worst examples of an overweight epidemic, and they are constantly fighting the battle. Drugs are being developed that combat obesity by mimicking certain hormones that stimulate weight loss – but these are not confirmed to be safe, and are being developed by private corporations. You might see the Novo Nordisk name appear in 2019 as a popular drug based option, but health officials have yet to give the final word on it.
Finally we must mention to role of medical tourism and European cosmetic surgery in all this. Obesity is treated by a number of European clinics popular with medical tourists seeking affordable weight loss treatment abroad. Number continue to soar with the classic technique, the gastric balloon, that is offered worldwide. More than 200,000 patients worldwide sought this treatment in 2017, making it a staple for popular medical tourism speciality clinics in areas like Prague, Czech Republic.
On the whole, we can expect something similar in weight loss treatment, but with higher numbers of clinics in an increasing number of countries. Individuals and institutions continue to opt for surgery as the most reliable way of combatting obesity, and we can expect technology to grow alongside this. If you’re considering it, make 2019 the year of a fully informed decision by choosing a time in which the treatment has never been more popular.
Sources:
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-01-surgery-effective-weight-loss-treatment.html
