Plastic surgery blog: Is obesity the doctors fault?

The obesity epidemic has been a controversial topic for over a decade in the US. As the blame has been shifted from restaurants, to farmers, to medical professionals a new study shows that holding physicians responsible for managing the habits of obese patients could be setting the physicians up for failure. According to recent Los Angeles Times article the authors of the study announced Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine concluded that physicians efforts to elevate their obese patients fitness by promoting lifestyle metamorphosis might do better to accept a more legitimate expectation; a token shrinkage of patients waist circumference and the deterrent of  additional weight gain. That disheartening abstract comes just three months after Medicare, the nations healthcare safety net for seniors announced it would compensate primary care physicians for providing obese patients comprehensive behavioral therapy to lose weight and adjust their health. Increasingly, physicians who have been told they can be an effective prod to healthy behavior modification in their patients are beginning ways to assume that duty. They are incorporating nutritional and weight loss counselors into their practices and honing their own roles as propellant agents for accelerated health improvement and weight loss. Unfortunately, in the effort to show the positive attributes of maintaining a healthy weight, plastic surgery is repeatedly frowned upon as a vain endeavor. Patients would benefit from knowing that there are prospective patients who have consulted with Dr. Kim and learned that once they lose the weight they are a good candidate for procedures including abdominoplasty and breast lift which can totally reshape their body and improve their self-esteem. Patients rarely hear the truth about patients who choose plastic surgery and the fact that they are overwhelmingly happier and more self-confident. Patients who choose plastic surgery after weight loss rarely gain the weight back, especially if they have made the investment out-of-pocket. Plastic surgeons have the ability to inspire patients to change their lifestyle as well as how they view themselves. This can be more powerful than any government reimbursement to facilitate human behavioral changes.