Bariatric surgery highlights major youth obesity

New figures have highlighted how obese our country is getting. Nearly 40% of those under the age of 25 who undergo weight loss surgery in the UK are classed as super-obese (defined by having a BMI of 50 or above).
The number of people having this kind of surgery is on the rise, and the fact that people under 25 are becoming so overweight has been described as being evidence of “a clear failure of strategies to prevent weight gain in young people.”
These figures were included in a report from the National Bariatric Surgery Registry. This registry includes information on more than 18,000 weight loss operations that took place in the UK between 2010 and 2013.
Bariatric surgery is used on those for whom dieting and lifestyle change hasn’t helped and who are at great health risk as a result of their weight.
550 people under the age of 25 underwent weight loss surgery in the three years covered by the registry, 62 of whom were under the age of 18.
“It is a reflection on society’s failing that these patients had already gained sufficient weight to be broadly comparable to patients who are much older,” the report commented.
With obesity and health related diseases like type 2 diabetes becoming more and more common, it is obvious that a healthy diet is not the priority that it should be in society.
Although bariatric surgery is effective, it costs the NHS a lot of money, and is far more traumatic for the patient to have to go through than it is to live healthily, get enough exercise, and prevent getting to the state where surgery is necessary in the first place.

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