NHS costs attributable to overweight and obesity are projected to reach £9.7 billion by 2050

[hellymissy]

So many posters keep banging on about people not wearing masks, spreading the virus and overwhelming the nhs, people breaking rules etc which is obviously an issue - but we also need to focus on some bigger issues around the long and short term sustainability of the NHS a d consider ways to fix them.

Extracts from government website shows that;

“UK and international evidence suggests that being severely overweight puts people at greater risk of hospitalisation, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission and death from COVID-19, with risk growing substantially as body mass index (BMI) increases.

The current evidence does not suggest that having excess weight increases people’s chances of contracting COVID-19. However, the data does show that obese people are significantly more likely to become seriously ill and be admitted to intensive care with COVID-19 compared to those with a healthy BMI.

The UK-wide NHS costs attributable to overweight and obesity are projected to reach £9.7 billion by 2050, with wider costs to society estimated to reach £49.9 billion per year.”

If anything will cripple the NHS it’s the direct and indirect impact of obesity on ICU units, and long term pressure obesity puts on the NHS.

Seriously, What else can we do to tackle obesity?

**this is NOT a fat shaming thread, purely a thread to redirect some peoples attention towards some of the real issues around COVID

It's widely known.
A poster with professional expertise - an actuary - posted upthread to explain about costs.

For now, here's a study. It's from 2008 but it's just one of many similar studies.

taxfoundation.org/new-study-shows-smokers-and-obese-actually-save-government-health-care-costs/

@SheepandCow the study you have referenced is from the Netherlands with a widely different healthcare system to the UK... and actually you didn’t even cite the study you cited a source that cites a source. Looking at the actual paper I tracked down on scholar it is specifically aimed at healthcare cost. Which actually I agree with but actually as I pointed out earlier it’s really not that simple at all! There are many more factors in terms to the cost of the UK state and smoking. I’ll just put my health economics masters away then because you have an article that mentions an article that mentions a study in a foreign country...

iea.org.uk/publications/smoking-and-the-public-purse/

Britain’s public finances would be £22.8 billion worse off if there were no drinking, smoking or obesity.

Britain’s public finances would be £22.8 billion worse off if there were no drinking, smoking or obesity

Looks like the costs are covered then 😂 (reaches for a packet of crisps and a pint of lager).

@Caroncanta
Cheers!

Thanks @SheepandCow, you saved me a job.

🍺🍺👍

@sheepandcow citing in-peer reviewed sources by authors that are known for their opposition to government taxation of alcohol, smoking and processed foods is not particularly helpful.

Non-peer reviewed

Fair enough. Tobacco and alcohol are only projected to cover a mere 20.8 billion this year. Just 2 billion out. Still covers double of the projected spend in 250 though in 2019/2020 so lots of change left over for the healthy thin people, straight from us fatty unhealthy tax contributers, after our health care has been paid for.

commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn01373/

@Pascal2908, the NHS does do gastric bands. It says so on the NHS website. I'm on Exante dietforums and people on there are getting gastric bamds on the NHS, but they've got to lose some weight first.

Ponoka7 I don't think I said the NHS don't do bands . I said it is very rare.

The Bariatric department's within the few regional hospitals that have one - are limited in resources- as are all NHS departments. Bands have an exceptionally high revision rate (40%) where they are removed - having slipped , or most likely not been successful.
When a large part of obesity is based a persons poor relationship with food - be that overeating , sugar addiction, comfort eating - an operation that still makes that possible , by simply liquidising unsuitable foods - is never going to be successful. If a person can 'resist' bad food stuffs they probably wouldn't be obese in the first place. A band requires a LOT of support , adjustment, input from health professionals with quite poor outcomes. Whereas the sleeve and bypass have excellent outcomes and not able to be circumvented . Therefore offer much more value for money.

I am on a closed hospital group from my Bariatric unit.. Joined over a year before my Op . There are over 110 people on the forum . 3 have had bands (privately) and all had revisions followed by bypass. There was a lady about 2 years ago who was going to have a band , as it's a less invasive procedure- in order to get down to a weight where the anaesthesia for bypass would be safer. In the end the balloon was deemed safer.

Plenty of private clinics will do bands. They have no issues of resource and it doesn't matter to them if you don't lose weight as they don't pay for your general health care .

[quote Foxyloxxy7]@Pascal2908 the NHS offer gastric bands at BMI 35 (if you have significant comorbodities) or BMI 40 if you don’t. With the current UK obesity rates that means that over 2 million adults in the UK would be eligible on the BMI category alone ignoring the lower limit allowed with associate health conditions. The NHS can actually offer gastric bands to a lot of people. It’s just usually people have to loose weight to safely undergo anaesthetic. It’s not a requirement to be considered for the surgery it’s just often a side effect as the anaesthetic needs to be administered safely.[/quote]
The reply to Ponoka7 should also of been tagged to you foxyloxxy.

It is NOT child abuse to have overweight children. I have a friend who has one overweight child and one slim one. They eat more or less the same.

How dangerous to suggest it is child abuse to have an overweight child. But crack on as theres not enough guilt heaped on parents as it is

If the NHS want to tackle obesity they need to start by listening to what patients tell them. I started putting weight on in my 20s. I kept telling my GP that I was tired and couldn't control my urge to eat. He told me that I was just lazy and greedy. I got no help, just judgment and I felt so awful I seriously considered suicide.

It was only after moving abroad that the underlying cause of my tiredness and compulsive eating was identified and treated and I could start on the path back to health.

I’d love draconian controls on takeaways - only a certain number of shops per population, heavily taxed, nowhere near schools with health warnings like cigarettes etc. We need to treat it like smoking.
Financial incentives for losing weight, getting fit.
Consequences for parents of overweight young kids. Basically child abuse.

Typical authoritarian response that shows exactly why the UK is sleeping walking into a draconian nightmare.

Financial incentives for losing weight, getting fit.

That won't help since obesity is not caused by the lack of want to lose weight, will it

@Pascal2908 wait a minute. I see you doing a pretty poor backtrack on here in regards to your previous comments. You told me to "get my facts right". About what exactly? I stated that the NHS carries out gastric band surgery. You then came on screeching that they DON'T do it. You then contradicted yourself in the very next sentence by saying that they do do it if you....well actually, let's see your quote, shall we...

"The NHS DON'T do Gastric bands !! Unless your obesity is so extreme that you need to lose a little weight t to be safe for the anaesthetic for Bariatric surgery.. get your facts right !!".

A BMI of 35 (which is what the required BMI is in my heath board for gastric band surgery) isn't 'obesity so extreme that you need to lose weight to be safe for the anesthetic before bariatric surgery.'

So what were you telling me to "get my facts right" about exactly? That they do do it? Which is exactly what I said...

You're backtracking and it's not even a smooth backtrack!

Telling people who are overweight or obese from excess eating to just simply eat less food is disingenuous and shows a lack of understanding of how they are in their current situation to begin with.

Decisions we make about eating are influenced by mental and physiological forces that are often outside of our awareness and ability to control. The way a food looks, tastes and feels can trick our brain into eating well past our required energy needs, food manufacturers obviously know this and are extremely successful in capitulating on it! Eating highly palatable foods consisting of high sugar/fat triggers the brains reward system to release pleasurable endorphins however this system can be disrupted over time and people who find themselves in this cycle have been shown to have fewer dopamine D2 receptors thus reducing their sensitivity to food and having to consume more to achieve the same result, they become tolerant to foods effects just as alcoholics do to alcohol.

Normally the appetite controlling hormones that affect our feeding circuit such as leptin and insulin are released as you eat to decrease pleasure signals being triggered thus making food seem less attractive. However this normal balance of hunger and satiety is also disturbed by high fat/sugar foods, they activate our reward circuits more powerfully than leptins ability to shut them down! Therefore the person eating doesn’t feel full and continues to eat.

It is quite cruel to label obese people as having an inferior will power when they may be stuck in a cycle of reduced dopamine D2 receptors, reduced sensitivity to food, cycles of cravings/withdrawals, environmental temptations everywhere they look and condemnation from even hcps.

People can say well not everyone has this but as the obesity rates are increasing in the U.K. something is going wrong somewhere and more people may be falling victim to this due to our awful food standards, and I am thankful that I’m not stuck in this awful cycle myself. I think anyone who manages to lose weight when they have been large have achieved a tremendous goal of battling their own mind and bodies, it’s not the case of just ‘Eating less’.

When you add in other factors such as mental health, comfort, trauma, poverty on top of our bodies awful physiological response to high sugar/fat foods, it really annoys me when people flippantly say eat less!

Also we do not treat alcoholics with the same ‘Just stop drinking’ attitude and expect them to have sorted themselves out in a month or two. It doesn’t work! They need help to overcome the physiological and mental consequences of their addiction. The same is true for those who over eat, I doubt many people want to be fat, they didn’t start out eating more and more because they wanted to get fat, it’s a vicious cycle and sometimes people need serious help to break free of it. Not a sign post to weight watchers with a bag of veg on their back and mutterings about being a lazy arse.

People pretty much do expect alcoholics to toddlet along to AA with a takeout coffee.

The point I'm making, comparing problem drinkers to over eaters is that no matter the environment, your feelings and triggers, whatever the hardships you face, the fundamental step of raising the glass/fork to your lips is under your control and no one elses. Anyone who has succeeded has found a way to control that action.
We should try and improve society and people's mental health of course, but no point waiting for that point is there, when it's your own short life you want to improve.

Yes I agree the final step of consuming the food is ultimately down to the individual person. Aye indeed there is no point in waiting for help that may never come as your life passes you by. I was trying to point out though that as with alcoholics and alcohol, a person who overeats or eats high sugar/fat can also be trapped in an addictive physiological cycle, not just eating for ratings sake. Therefore some compassion and understanding whilst they undertake their own battles won’t go amiss, instead of the derision and disgust that is so often directed at overweight people.

I think most alcoholics eventually succeed in controlling the action of putting the bottle to their lips by eliminating alcohol from their lives altogether, and forever. I know a few ‘dry alcoholics’ who are terrified of the prospect of drinking a glass again as they are not able to drink in moderation, no matter how much they want to, and will relapse if they do.

Unfortunately obese people who are struggling with disordered eating still need to eat three times a day, so total abstinence isn’t an option and trying to moderate by themselves isn’t working.

Decisions we make about eating are influenced by mental and physiological forces that are often outside of our awareness and ability to control
I don't agree. Almost everything is in our control.

Going through the menopause and my appetite has gone totally crazy. Food is on my mind any second of being awake. It is only my willpower that allows me to still keep my weight to an acceptable point.

If I just told myself that it wasn't my fault my hormones were messing me about, and ate as much as my body/head was telling me to, I'd be a couple of stones more than I am.

Sadly we have to accept and adjust our food intake depending on our circumstances. Some have it easier than others.

Putting "this is not a fat shaming thread" and then continuing to do exactly that, does not negate your behaviour.

You might have gotten away with it if you hadn't started a sentence with "I have a friend who is morbidly obese..." and then discussed her eating habits.