Al Emadi Hospital organised last week a three-day awareness campaign highlighting the effects of obesity on health and promoting ways to prevent it and enjoy a healthy lifestyle.
Participation in the initiative came through an awareness campaign held at the Outpatient Clinics building at Al Emadi Hospital in the presence of the hospital’s staff, patients, families and their children.
The campaign was organised in line with Al Emadi Hospital’s “commitment to preventing and fighting the spread of obesity”, it said in a statement.
The highlights of the event included the screening of videos on the effects of obesity – a condition wherein a person has accumulated so much body fat that it could have a negative effect on health, in addition to the distribution of flyers on the best ways to prevent it and enjoy a healthy lifestyle.
There was large participation in the activity, not only from Al Emadi Hospital’s healthcare providers and staff but also from patients and families, including children. The hospital nursing staff also measured visitors’ height, weight, body mass index and body composition, and provided visitors with information about maintaining a healthy diet, the importance of daily physical exercise and the importance of physical activity as a strategy to prevent obesity.
Dr Mohamed Abdulla al-Emadi, chairman and senior consultant – general, laparoscopic and bariatric surgery, Al Emadi Hospital, said: “Al Emadi Hospital is always keen to participate in this initiative as obesity is a major risk for developing serious diseases, including coronary heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia and other health problems”.
Dr al-Emadi added that the unhealthy eating habits and the lack of physical activity are significant reasons for developing obesity, and stressed that obesity can be prevented by following a healthy lifestyle. However, patients who cannot lose weight through healthy eating habits and sports programmes can undergo bariatric surgeries, as these are now considered to be one of the most successful ways of treating morbid obesity. Many metabolic diseases, such as Type 2 diabetes, can be corrected by bariatric surgeries and cured completely post-surgery in some cases, but it is important for patients to continue with their follow-up after surgery and maintain a healthy lifestyle to avoid weight regain, it was observed.
Last year, Dr Mohamed Abdulla Al Emadi Medical Group opened three centres to help patients with their follow-up after surgery – Al Emadi Physiotherapy Centre, BMI Fitness Centre and Regime Nutrition Centre. These offer patients complete fitness and diet programmes to help them maintain a healthy lifestyle.
World Obesity Day was launched in 2015 to stimulate and support practical solutions to help people achieve and maintain a healthy weight, and to reverse the obesity crisis.
The campaign was organised in line with Al Emadi Hospital’s ‘commitment to preventing and fighting the spread of obesity’.
