Hyderabad: City based Leads Medical Center organised a Continuous Medical Education(CME) program on Obesity Surgical Awareness here in city Saturday till late night. Nearly 100 doctors and patients attended the same held at Hotel Green Park. .

Speaking on the occasion Surgical Gastroenterologist and Bariatric Surgeon Dr. Y. Krishna Mohan said Bariatric Surgery is not a mere cosmetic surgery.  It is a life saving surgery.  Bariatric surgery, or weight loss surgery, includes a variety of procedures performed on people who are obese. Weight loss is achieved by reducing the size of the stomach with an implanted medical device (gastric banding) or through removal of a portion of the stomach (sleeve gastrectomy or biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch) or by resecting and re-routing the small intestines to a small stomach pouch (gastric bypass surgery) he said.

Adding further he stated that about five lakh such surgeries are performed each year in United States of America.  This trend is slowly catching up in India.  15% of population are obese.  Women are more obese than men.  Andhra Pradesh ranks 5th in the obesity in the country.  Surgery is the only solution for drastic weight loss. From less than 100 operations per year a few years ago, there are about 10000 surgeries being performed every year in India today informed Dr. Y. Krishna Mohan.  Studies revealed that 70% obesity can accounted for genetic factor, he said.

Replying to questions asked by participants Dr. Y. Krishna Mohan said sweet lovers cause much harm to their health he said added that on the average, to maintain desirable weight, men need about 2700 calories per day and women need about 2000 calories per day. But, we add more calories and burn less.  Another biggest problem is food.  We socialise by eating. Food has a great role to play in national integration. Breakfast, lunches, dinners and parties bring many people together to share happy feasts. We meet over food. We enjoy over food. Our celebrations start with food and end with food.  So one needs to excercise strict diet regime.  Must have breakfast between 6 to 8am, lunch 12noon to 2pm and dinner between 6 to 8pm he said.  And advised to consume lot of fibre foods such as vegetables and fruits.  And advised people to refrain from fried food, food with lot of calories and consumption of carbohydrates.