L’obesity it is not the result of poor management of one’s diet or an incorrect lifestyle, but a multifactorial pathology defined by excessive adiposity to which numerous other chronic diseases are related, such as diabetes, heart failure, ‘hypertension. Important are also associated with these psychological repercussionssuch as loss of self-esteem and security, self-isolation and, in severe cases, depression.
“Obesity is a disease which hides a series of health and social problems that only those who have experienced it closely are able to understand,” he comments. Iris Zani, President of Amici Obesi Onlus. «It is necessary to act promptly once the disease has been recognized, in such a way as to facilitate the treatment pathways intended above all for patients with medium-grade obesity who unfortunately today, unlike patients with severe obesity, have to bear all the costs entirely at their own expense. associated with doctor visits and medications.
How to intervene in case of obesity?
Obesity is a chronic and disabling disease which, as such, must be treated. Only a total taking charge of the patient and a multidisciplinary approach, personalized on the needs of the individual, can improve the quality of life of the person suffering from obesity. Each patient must therefore be started and followed along a tailor-made path, in relation to his clinical history and the degree of obesity, but also to his needs. The therapeutic approach consists in reduction in body weight, to be carried out under strict medical supervision, following a correct diet, carrying out a regular program of physical activity and adequate to one’s possibilities. In some cases it may even be recommended the surgical and endoscopic approach. However, despite the urgency of the problem, only 1% of eligible patients undergo bariatric surgery.
Obesity: new minimally invasive endoscopic techniques
«Today there bariatric surgery in Italy it has more than 30,000 procedures a year and offers the possibility of performing numerous interventions that are effective in reducing weight, the complications associated with it and maintaining the weight loss achieved over time» he comments Ivo Boškoski, Gastroenterologist Medical Director of the Agostino Gemelli University Hospital Foundation in Rome. «Just the evolution of the technique and the continuous research by bariatric surgeons for safe and effective solutions sees, to date, also the possibility of using endoscopic techniques such as endoscopic gastroplasty. It is a less invasive approach, a procedure without incisions and scars, which employs a endoscopic suture system (OverStitch) to reduce the volume of the stomach and delay its emptying, achieving a long-lasting and clinically significant weight loss».
