2014-15. The National Health Survey
also indicated that almost one quar-
ter of children aged 5-17 years were
overweight or obese. In 2011 over-
weight and obesity was responsible
for seven per cent of the total health
burden in Australia, 63 per cent of
which was fatal burden. Obesity in
2012 was estimated to have cost the
Australian economy A$8.6 billion.
As well as the impact of over-
weight and obesity as a risk fac-
tor for chronic conditions, today’s
hospitals are having to gear up for
this age of obesity, with super-sized
equipment, surgical tools and fur-
niture. Other healthcare costs in
caring for the obese include wide
doors, f loor-mounted toilets that
won’t break under heav y weight, and
the purchase by ambulance depart-
ments of specially reinforced ambu-
lances with bariatric stretchers that
can support up to 318 kilograms.
It seems even countries such as
Sweden that historically didn’t have
pressing problems with obesity, are
increasingly reporting issues. There,
more than half of adults over the age
of 20 are overweight and 18.6 per cent
of them are officially obese.
One of Sweden’s leading experts in
paediatric obesity, Dr Carl-Erik Flod-
mark, is most concerned about the
increased incidence of fatty liver dis-
ease in younger obese patients due to
deposits of fat that aren’t f lushed out,
which can lead to scarring and even-
tually turn into cancer. “We need to
respond to obesity with healthcare
and societal actions that include
the food and advertising industries,”
he says.IN SPRING 2015, GLENN MCMULLIN
was a 50-year-old training pilot, who
commuted regularly for his job. He
weighed 154 kilograms and used a
special ‘continuous positive airway
pressure’ machine, or CPAP, each
night to keep himself breathing as
he slept. Then came the morning he
bought a fat-laden breakfast sand-
wich at a fast-food restaurant on the
way to work.He took a bite, chewed and swal-
lowed. It wouldn’t go down. Instead,
it remained stuck in his oesophagus,
a hard lump. “I’d better see the doc-
tor,” he told his wife.
The doctor ordered tests, which
came back positive for oesophageal
cancer, a diagnosis that at first left
Glenn reeling. “It didn’t last long,
though, because I learned early on
in my job that panic is your enemy,”
he says. “I could live to the fullest and
not lose another day to fear.”WHEN
YOU’RE OBESE,
OSTEOARTHRITIS
PROGRESSES FASTER
DUE TO GAIT CHANGES
AND PRESSURE74 Augus t 2019
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