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Obesity Management
Dr. Chadha (Family Practice Physician, Obesity Medicine Clinician) talks about Obesity Management. Dr. Chadha explains what is obesity, the health complications that come with it, and why is managing your weight important.
Featured Speaker:
Dr. Chadha believes in giving personalized care to all patients as every individual is different. She truly believes that obesity is a chronic medical condition and needs to be treated as a medical problem and not a problem of “willpower “ or “ calorie in and calorie out.” Patients struggling with obesity deserve medical treatment just like any other health problem. Being Board Certified in Obesity medicine gives her the additional training to treat obesity in an Evidence-based manner.
In her spare time, Dr. Chadha enjoys reading, golf, playing badminton, long walks with my family, and volunteering at my religious organization to teach the Punjabi language to children.
Additional Languages: English, Hindi, Punjabi,Urdu
Anila Chadha, M.D., DABOM
Dr. Chadha attends medical school at the University of Rajasthan, India after graduation, she held an internship at Lady Hardinge Medical College, University Of Delhi, India. She completed her residency at Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield, CA. Practice details. Dr. Chadha specializes in non-surgical Weight Loss Programs, including treatment with FDA-approved medications, diet plans using easily accessible protein replacement meals, behavioral modification, and exercise recommendations.Dr. Chadha believes in giving personalized care to all patients as every individual is different. She truly believes that obesity is a chronic medical condition and needs to be treated as a medical problem and not a problem of “willpower “ or “ calorie in and calorie out.” Patients struggling with obesity deserve medical treatment just like any other health problem. Being Board Certified in Obesity medicine gives her the additional training to treat obesity in an Evidence-based manner.
In her spare time, Dr. Chadha enjoys reading, golf, playing badminton, long walks with my family, and volunteering at my religious organization to teach the Punjabi language to children.
Additional Languages: English, Hindi, Punjabi,Urdu
Transcription:
Obesity Management
Cheryl Martin (Host): Taking the extra pounds off and keeping them off can be a challenge. Our guest today believes that obesity is a chronic medical condition and that patients struggling with that deserve medical treatment, just like any other health problem. I'm Cheryl Martin. And on this episode of Hello Healthy, a Dignity Health Podcast. Our topic is obesity management. Our guest is Dr. Anila Chadha. Her specialty is nonsurgical weight loss programs. Dr. Chadha. Thanks for being on.
Dr Anila Chadha: Thank you for having me.
Cheryl Martin (Host): The first question is what is obesity?
Dr Anila Chadha: Obesity is a chronic medical disease. I wanna emphasize it's a chronic medical disease caused by complex interplay of hunger hormones, society hormones, our en environment, and genetics. It is not merely calories in calories out.
Cheryl Martin (Host): So what are the health complications that come with obesity?
Dr Anila Chadha: Obesity is central to many health complications. Number one, high blood pressure, type two diabetes, obstructive sleep apnea, heart disease, stroke, early osteoarthritis of knees. Polycystic ovarian disease. Many cancers, unfortunately are linked to obesity.
Cheryl Martin (Host): So that's a perfect segue into the question. Why is managing your weight so important?
Dr Anila Chadha: Managing weight is extremely important because not only it is preventative, but also it improves the quality of life. It can prevent so many of the health problems that we see are becoming more and more prevalent in the United States. So if somebody manages weight and they are on their pathway to lose approximately five to 10% of their body weight, they can reverse their diabetes. They can reverse fatty liver, they can improve sleep apnea, their arthritis improves. There are so many health benefits of losing even five to 10% of body weight. And we can prevent, we can be at lower risk for approximately 15 types of cancers.
Cheryl Martin (Host): Wow. Now, doctor, when we talk about obesity, is there a particular weight range that when you know, you've hit that, that you would be considered obese?
Dr Anila Chadha: Yes. So obesity is measured by body mass index body. Mass index is a calculation between weight and height. When the body mass indexes, more than 30, we call it as obesity. Obesity is classified as mild, moderate, and severe. So 30 to 34.9 is called mild obesity. 35 to 39.9 is moderate and more than 40 is severe obesity. There is one more parameter that we use for obesity that is waste circumference. If the waste circumference for females is more than 35, then that is also categorized as obesity. And for males, it is 40 inches.
Cheryl Martin (Host): So is the goal to get out of the obesity range altogether, even mild?
Dr Anila Chadha: Yes, even for mild obesity, the goal is to be less than the body mass index of 30 preferably less than 25, actually.
Cheryl Martin (Host): Okay. So you've talked about this, that obesity is not just a matter of willpower or calories in and calories out. So what can cause obesity?
Dr Anila Chadha: There are many contributing factors for obesity in one's life, starting from childhood. for example, for females, during menarchy or when the menstrual cycle onset is there to pregnancy to menopause, all these can contribute to obesity. For in general population, sedentary lifestyle, any history of trauma, eating away from home. There are many hormone dysregulation problems that can contribute to hormone dysregulation in hypothalamus, that ultimately contributes to obesity.
Cheryl Martin (Host): So, is there medication to help you manage your weight?
Dr Anila Chadha: There are many FDA approved medications these days to help treat the disease obesity. The number one is, GLP1 analogs. These medications were originally used for diabetes, but it was noticed that they are also helpful in losing weight. Because as I said, obesity is central to these comorbidities like Diabetes. So GLP1 analogs are these days used the most common medications. They come as injectables, but they're pretty doable for patients weekly or daily. Then the other ones are appetite suppressants, which suppress the appetite, so that our body does not give abnormal signaling that a person is hungry. And by virtue of that, they lose weight. Then we have medications which target towards emotional eating and cravings.
Cheryl Martin (Host): So if surgery is needed and those medications are not working, what are the options?
Dr Anila Chadha: Now surgery is an excellent option. These days the weight loss surgery is called catabolic surgery because it has been seen that, surgery has many metabolic advantages and benefits, for obesity and its comorbidities. The most common surgery done these days is gastric sleeve surgery or gastric bypass surgery. Gastric sleeve surgery, is recommended whenever there is body mass index of more than 35, along with obesity related disease.
For example, somebody has body mass index of 37 and they have diabetes, they can get metabolic surgery and their diabetes can actually reverse. Similarly, anybody who has body mass index of more than 40 surgery is, excellent choice for them because, it improves the life expectancy by seven years, it improves the quality of life in 89% of the people.
Cheryl Martin (Host): Wow. Is there anything else you wanted to add that we did not cover?
Dr Anila Chadha: If you or your family member are struggling from obesity, recognize that this is not your fault. It is a chronic disease. It needs to be treated. There are many obesity medicine physicians who treat obesity as a disease, and there's. So much help out there.
Cheryl Martin (Host): Dr. Anila Chadha thanks for explaining obesity and educating us on some of the non-surgical ways for managing our weight. To learn more, visit dignityhealth.org/bakersfield. If you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and be sure to check out the podcast library for other topics of interest to you.
Thanks for listening to this episode of Hello Healthy, a Dignity Health Podcast.
Obesity Management
Cheryl Martin (Host): Taking the extra pounds off and keeping them off can be a challenge. Our guest today believes that obesity is a chronic medical condition and that patients struggling with that deserve medical treatment, just like any other health problem. I'm Cheryl Martin. And on this episode of Hello Healthy, a Dignity Health Podcast. Our topic is obesity management. Our guest is Dr. Anila Chadha. Her specialty is nonsurgical weight loss programs. Dr. Chadha. Thanks for being on.
Dr Anila Chadha: Thank you for having me.
Cheryl Martin (Host): The first question is what is obesity?
Dr Anila Chadha: Obesity is a chronic medical disease. I wanna emphasize it's a chronic medical disease caused by complex interplay of hunger hormones, society hormones, our en environment, and genetics. It is not merely calories in calories out.
Cheryl Martin (Host): So what are the health complications that come with obesity?
Dr Anila Chadha: Obesity is central to many health complications. Number one, high blood pressure, type two diabetes, obstructive sleep apnea, heart disease, stroke, early osteoarthritis of knees. Polycystic ovarian disease. Many cancers, unfortunately are linked to obesity.
Cheryl Martin (Host): So that's a perfect segue into the question. Why is managing your weight so important?
Dr Anila Chadha: Managing weight is extremely important because not only it is preventative, but also it improves the quality of life. It can prevent so many of the health problems that we see are becoming more and more prevalent in the United States. So if somebody manages weight and they are on their pathway to lose approximately five to 10% of their body weight, they can reverse their diabetes. They can reverse fatty liver, they can improve sleep apnea, their arthritis improves. There are so many health benefits of losing even five to 10% of body weight. And we can prevent, we can be at lower risk for approximately 15 types of cancers.
Cheryl Martin (Host): Wow. Now, doctor, when we talk about obesity, is there a particular weight range that when you know, you've hit that, that you would be considered obese?
Dr Anila Chadha: Yes. So obesity is measured by body mass index body. Mass index is a calculation between weight and height. When the body mass indexes, more than 30, we call it as obesity. Obesity is classified as mild, moderate, and severe. So 30 to 34.9 is called mild obesity. 35 to 39.9 is moderate and more than 40 is severe obesity. There is one more parameter that we use for obesity that is waste circumference. If the waste circumference for females is more than 35, then that is also categorized as obesity. And for males, it is 40 inches.
Cheryl Martin (Host): So is the goal to get out of the obesity range altogether, even mild?
Dr Anila Chadha: Yes, even for mild obesity, the goal is to be less than the body mass index of 30 preferably less than 25, actually.
Cheryl Martin (Host): Okay. So you've talked about this, that obesity is not just a matter of willpower or calories in and calories out. So what can cause obesity?
Dr Anila Chadha: There are many contributing factors for obesity in one's life, starting from childhood. for example, for females, during menarchy or when the menstrual cycle onset is there to pregnancy to menopause, all these can contribute to obesity. For in general population, sedentary lifestyle, any history of trauma, eating away from home. There are many hormone dysregulation problems that can contribute to hormone dysregulation in hypothalamus, that ultimately contributes to obesity.
Cheryl Martin (Host): So, is there medication to help you manage your weight?
Dr Anila Chadha: There are many FDA approved medications these days to help treat the disease obesity. The number one is, GLP1 analogs. These medications were originally used for diabetes, but it was noticed that they are also helpful in losing weight. Because as I said, obesity is central to these comorbidities like Diabetes. So GLP1 analogs are these days used the most common medications. They come as injectables, but they're pretty doable for patients weekly or daily. Then the other ones are appetite suppressants, which suppress the appetite, so that our body does not give abnormal signaling that a person is hungry. And by virtue of that, they lose weight. Then we have medications which target towards emotional eating and cravings.
Cheryl Martin (Host): So if surgery is needed and those medications are not working, what are the options?
Dr Anila Chadha: Now surgery is an excellent option. These days the weight loss surgery is called catabolic surgery because it has been seen that, surgery has many metabolic advantages and benefits, for obesity and its comorbidities. The most common surgery done these days is gastric sleeve surgery or gastric bypass surgery. Gastric sleeve surgery, is recommended whenever there is body mass index of more than 35, along with obesity related disease.
For example, somebody has body mass index of 37 and they have diabetes, they can get metabolic surgery and their diabetes can actually reverse. Similarly, anybody who has body mass index of more than 40 surgery is, excellent choice for them because, it improves the life expectancy by seven years, it improves the quality of life in 89% of the people.
Cheryl Martin (Host): Wow. Is there anything else you wanted to add that we did not cover?
Dr Anila Chadha: If you or your family member are struggling from obesity, recognize that this is not your fault. It is a chronic disease. It needs to be treated. There are many obesity medicine physicians who treat obesity as a disease, and there's. So much help out there.
Cheryl Martin (Host): Dr. Anila Chadha thanks for explaining obesity and educating us on some of the non-surgical ways for managing our weight. To learn more, visit dignityhealth.org/bakersfield. If you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and be sure to check out the podcast library for other topics of interest to you.
Thanks for listening to this episode of Hello Healthy, a Dignity Health Podcast.