Less weight means a 10% decrease in visits to doctors

According to the latest statistics, almost a quarter of Canadians are obese. And as you know, overweight very often leads to diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Moreover, in the past thirty years, this trend has become more and more worrying. But is the obesity epidemic putting sufficient pressure on Canada’s health system? In Poland, the situation related to obesity and overweight is also becoming worse and worse, and since many things come from the West, it is worth reading what may also happen soon. James McIntosh, a professor of the Department of Economics at Concordia University, was the first to draw attention to the dependence of obesity and visits to doctors.   The most surprising fact is that obese people visit the doctor even more than regular weight smokers!  It shows how serious the problem is says McIntosh. The professor, based on data collected in 2010 in a health study conducted on 60,000 Canadians, said that if obesity could be eliminated, the number of visits to doctors would drop by 10%!   And even more when we consider type 2 diabetes. It is possible that being overweight leads to even more visits to specialists than McIntosh predicts.  Why? This researcher’s analysis does not include information about the time when the excess weight was established. Someone who has had this recently may just not be experiencing the negative effects yet and therefore need no medical attention.   The professor hopes that the next research will allow to obtain more accurate results. Undoubtedly, you need to act. How? The solution may be the lack of economic benefits – higher health insurance. The downside to this approach is that obesity tends to affect people on low incomes.  McIntosh pays attention primarily to industry regulation fast food. Although the situation is serious, it is not a catastrophe yet, says McIntosh. But now is the time to react before things get out of hand. source: ScienceNews.pl