Materia Medica Malaysiana

Obesity becoming a huge problem

The trend of more and more Malaysians neglecting "tolak-tarik" (exercise) but indulging in sweetened teh-tarik has led to 27% of the 25 million people being obese.
Pantai Holdings Berhad chairman Datuk Dr Ridzwan Abu Bakar said obesity is becoming an emerging health problem and it may put a huge burden on the country's human and economic resources.
Ridzwan said this at a seminar entitled, "Morbid Obesity and Lap Band Surgery" at Pantai Medical Centre yesterday.
Meanwhile, Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad said obesity is not simply a negative social stigma but is also a chronic illness, which is increasing worldwide at an alarming rate.
He said erratic meal patterns and a generally more sedentary lifestyle have resulted in overweight and obesity being an increasingly prevalent childhood nutritional disorder in the country.
Abdul Latiff said the cost of treating obesity is escalating and because most obese children grow into obese adults, this trend, if left unchecked, will affect healthcare.
He said people suffering from obesity resort to dieting and other weight management programmes at some point in their lives but such programmes are usually only marginally successful with patients shedding no more than 10% to 20% of their excess weight.
Abdul Latiff said an alternative method - bariatric surgery done laparoscopically - by far achieves a greater rate of excess weight loss of up to 70%, thus reducing co-morbidities.
He said this at a press conference after officiating the seminar on morbid obesity and lap band surgery where Prof Paul O'Brien, Emeritus Professor of Surgery and director of the Centre for Obesity Research and Education at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia made a presentation on morbid obesity and lap band surgery.
Lap band surgery was introduced as a sustainable weight loss solution for morbidly obese patients at PMC in mid-January last year.
PMC is the first hospital in the country to offer and conduct laparoscopic gastric banding (lap band) surgery as treatment for morbid obesity.
The surgery involves applying a prosthesis (lap band) around the stomach, creating a small gastric pouch and a calibrated opening to the rest of the stomach.
To date, PMC has successfully performed lap band surgery on five patients, weighing between 97kg and 204kg.
The first patient lost a total of 53kg, or 74%, of her excess weight after surgery with no complications and the latest patient who underwent surgery in March lost 15kg in two months.