By
Medstar
.
Published: Tue, January 01, 2008 - 11:00 am
Last Updated: Tue, January 01, 2008 - 4:31 pm
Mary Beth Shaw spent years in a frustrating fight to lose weight. "You know it's too much work, it takes too much time. You want the weight gone (snaps fingers) like that.
Instead of a quick fix, Mary Beth lost weight the old-fashioned way…diet and exercise.
"That's when I was about 220, two years ago."
"That is very impressive."
Mary Beth's weight problem, and related health concerns, were tackled by a team at the medical college of wisconsin's metabolic syndrome clinic.
"We're able to provide, in one location, under one roof, the components that they'll need to be successful with weight loss."
The team includes an Endocrinologist, exercise physiologists, and a psychologist.
"Because many patients who are obese and/or who have metabolic syndrome, have issues that they're dealing with, and without facing those issues head-on, we aren't really going to be successful."
Unhealthy eating habits are addressed by a dietitian.
"I never thought I'd see a dietitian because I thought, well I know I'm not supposed to eat two pieces of cake, it doesn't mean I'm not going to do it."
But diet and exercise efforts pay off in many medical ways.
"When we see patients lose weight, we see their medications slowly discontinued as they are successful in our program."
For Mary Beth, lifestyle improvements, including taking up long-distance bicycling, added up to a sixty-pound weight loss. A study conducted by the Metabolic Syndrome Clinic found that patients who participated in the weight loss strategies reduced their risk of cardiovascular disease by nearly 20-percent within six months. Check online for similar team-approach programs.
FAST FACTS:
About two-thirds of adults in the U.S. are overweight and nearly one-third are obese.
Each year, about 300,000 deaths can be attributed to obesity.
People with metabolic syndrome are twice as likely to develop heart disease and five times as likely to develop diabetes.
The metabolic clinic at Medical College of Wisconsin’s takes a team approach to treating obesity.
After six months of team therapy, the researchers found improvements in many different areas of health, like lowered blood pressure and improved cholesterol.
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Free Fruits on Public Areas to Curb Spreading Obesity
Fruits are low in calories and highly nutritional already grown on public places at increasing ratios to face obesity trends. Tree climbing also can be a body exercise for kids harvesting fruits.
Fruits have around four times more water content than cookies and easily satisfy hunger taking less energy. Refrigerators full of fruits easily beat junkies.
In Brazil we are increasing fruit trees in the public areas changing the country to a large tropical orchard. Then, sidewalks, squares, parks, roadsides will be plenty of free fruits bearing appropriate food to fight spreading obesity. Free fruits are protected from the power of the economic system pursuing profitability.
Other countries are invited to join us on a fight against global obesity toward a Public Fructification. Brazil intends to become a developed country without common problems of a superpower.