A Growing Problem

The fact that liposuction has become the most popular plastic surgery procedure in the nation points up another statistical fact: The world is getting fatter. About one third of adult Americans are clinically obese-defined as 25 percent body fat for men and 33 to 35 percent body fat for women-and the percentage is growing every year. We are not alone. The prevalence of obesity is rising so rapidly in so many countries that the World Health Organization recently declared a "global epidemic of obesity."

I wish I could say otherwise, but from my limited travels to medical meetings and ambulatory surgery facilities, I have to say that the managers, nurses, and physicians within the outpatient surgery community appear to be afflicted with at least as much obesity as the rest of the population. That concerns me.

As guardians of their patients' health, healthcare workers need to set an example for the rest of us by taking care of themselves first. They undoubtedly know that obesity significantly increases the risk of hypertension, stroke, congestive heart failure, and cardiovascular disease. But too often, overwhelmed by the stresses of caring for others, it seems they ignore the advice they dispense.

We know now that obesity is a complex, poorly understood disease with genetic and environmental causes. Obese people need all the support they can get to beat it. To the extent that they can, outpatient surgery facility managers need to provide that help to their staffs. Apart from just being the right thing to do, having a healthy staff is good for business and crucial for a smoothly running facility.

Some advice:
– Treat obese employees with the same love, respect, and praise you accord your other workers, and more if possible. Low self-esteem and moodiness can stimulate overeating.
– Support the idea of and help your employees understand the value of a balanced way of eating (not a diet) along the lines of the food pyramid-heavy on leafy green vegetables and grains, lighter on protein, and particularly light on fat. Set an example of avoiding processed, fatty, and fast foods, and choose healthy ones instead. Certainly no health professional should support fad diets like the current low-carbohydrate models, which result in temporary loss of fluid and muscle mass but do not help with long-term weight loss.
– Encourage and provide time for a regular, sustained exercise program. Although exercise by itself does not cause as much weight loss as restricted calorie intake, studies show that maintenance of regular physical activity is the most important predictor of success of long-term weight maintenance.
– Be sure that the health plan you offer provides counseling and long-term treatment for obesity.

Outpatient surgery professionals care deeply for their patients. It's time they lavished some of that care on themselves. Nothing is more important than our health, a fact we too often discover after it's gone.

Stan Herrin, Publisher and Editor in Chief