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Fight Against Obesity 'Must Start Earlier'

Posted on: Wednesday, 16 March 2005, 12:00 CST

If wales is to win the fight against obesity the health service must help people before they gain too much weight, a leading expert said last night. Dr Nadim Haboubi, pictured, who is set to launch Wales' first consultant-led private obesity clinics, said Wales was crying out for similar NHS-run services in every area.

Tackling obesity at an earlier stage could prevent people from suffering weight-related chronic diseases, such as heart disease, osteoarthritis and diabetes, and save the health service millions of pounds.

But a paucity of state-run services means that many overweight and obese people in Wales are struggling to lose weight without support or expert guidance.

Dr Haboubi, who has run an NHS specialist weight management clinic in Blaenau Gwent for the past three years, will set up the new clinics, for paying patients, in Cardiff and Newport.

The clinics, to be run in the evenings at the Cyncoed Consul- ting Room, part of Bupa in Cardiff, and St Joseph's Hospital, in Newport, aim to address the psychological, emotional and behavioural causes of obesity as well as offer expert dietetic advice and an exercise programme.

Dr Haboubi said, 'There is a desperate need for every area in Wales to have an NHS-run obesity service. But they must be run by people with a dedicated interest and experience in obesity because obesity is a far more complex and chronic problem, and it is not purely about diet.

'I believe that if we are to address obesity we have to start at an early age, well before people become severely obese.

'If we can recognise the problem early enough, well before the co- morbidity of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and osteoarthritis sets in, we could be far more successful in achieving weight reduction.'

Dr Haboubi said he was responding to demand from fellow health professionals in deciding to set up the private clinics.

Obesity is regarded as second only to smoking as a cause of preventable ill health.

Research by Prof Rhys Williams, at University of Wales, Swansea, suggests that 8% of girls and 5% of boys in Swansea and Neath Port Talbot are obese by the time they are five, and it is estimated that about a quarter of Welsh adults are now obese.

For the past three years Dr Haboubi has been running a unique specialist weight management clinic for morbidly obese people - people with a body mass index of 40 or over - in Ebbw Vale Hospital. It is the only programme in the UK to combine the skills of a dietician, a psychotherapist, nurses and a consultant with a special interest in obesity, and a physiotherapist.

But because it is funded by the Welsh Assembly Government to meet the needs of obese patients in one area, patients from outside Blaenau Gwent and those who are not morbidly obese are excluded.

The new private clinic will be available to anyone in Wales, regardless of their body mass index. An initial consultation will cost from pounds 100 and a three-month tailor-made package, which includes three sessions with a consultant and three with a dietitian will cost from about pounds 500. 'Worldwide experts tell us that overweight people who are engaged in specific diets, such as Atkins, or are engaged in programmes such as Slimming World or Weight Watchers, may lose weight but they put it back on over time,' Dr Haboubi said. 'The weight will not disappear in those three months because this is not an instant process - this is a long-term and sustainable weight loss programme.'

The obesity clinics can be contacted on 01633 820299 (St Joseph's Hospital) or 029 2076 4611 (Cyncoed Consulting Room).: The sadness of supersize kids:Teenage Abby, above, is one of the so-called 'big kids' featured in an extraordinary new TV series, Supersize Kids. The two-part Channel 4 programme follows the extraordinary journeys of five children over a year as they struggle to lose weight and regain their health and self-esteem.

Bethany is six years old but has to wear clothes designed for 12 to 13-year-olds. Fifteen-year-old Abby, pictured, just wants to find love but doesn't believe boys like fat girls and Ryan's family have threatened to send him away to boarding school if he doesn't shed some of his 26 stone immediately.

Helen is 16 and weighs nearly 24 stone. The show, which aired last night at 9pm, follows Helen and her 20-stone mother as they undergo a radical stomach-stapling operation in an attempt to shed some of their weight. Naomi is now 23 but suffered as a fat kid all her life. After losing eight stone she now embarks on surgery to remove masses of excess skin that hangs around her waist.

Source: Western Mail

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