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Muhammad, 30 years old, weighed 140 kg and is among the growing number of Emirati sufferers to cope with the serious consequences of his weight for health.
His case has become well known to doctors in the United Arab Emirates and around the world, while hospitals are battling the issue of rising rates of obesity.
In a recent study, 50% of 18-year-old Emirati men were overweight or obese, and 41% had the first signs of diabetes.
The same survey of 33,000 Emirati men also found that 71% of 18- to 29-year-olds were overweight.
Today, Mohammed, who did not want to give his full name, is taking action to address his problem of obesity.
Like thousands of others of its size, the cause of its weight is fully self-inflicted, the love of fast food being an obvious culprit.
In April of this year, surgeons performed an operation to insert a gastrectomy into the sleeve to reduce the size of their stomach and appetite.
Since then, his weight has dropped to 120 kg, but he remains far from his goal of 80 to 100 kg.
"[Before the operation] I ate all kinds of foods, especially fast foods; usually three or four meals a day, "said Mohammed, from Ras Al Khaimah.
"I had no problem, but there were prospects for future problems such as diabetes and hypertension.
"Now my diet has changed completely and I only eat foods that will help me lose weight. I have completely abandoned fast food. "
Dr. Girish Juneja believes that lifestyle, including the availability of cheap food, laziness and lack of exercise are all contributing factors to obesity rates. Chris Whiteoak / The National
This month Cancer Research UK has warned that cancers of the gut, kidneys, ovaries and liver are now more likely to be overweight than smoking.
Millions of people were at risk of contracting the disease because of their weight, and obese people were twice as likely as smokers.
Dr. Girish Juneja, director of the bariatric center at Al Zahra Hospital in Dubai, is well aware of the growing epidemic of overweight patients.
He has practiced over 700 weight loss procedures since April 2014 and deplores the number of patients who are opting for expensive surgery at the expense of a commitment to essential lifestyle changes.
Surgery results are often short-lived, and as weight returns, some patients choose a second, third, or fourth procedure.
"Obesity is now a major problem in society, but not just for the emirati," said Dr. Juneja.
"There are many reasons related to lifestyle, availability of cheap food, laziness and lack of exercise.
"We rarely see obese patients who have a genetic malformation that has caused their disease."
Dr. Juneja's center offers two types of corrective procedures, weight loss, but only after the patient has made a concentrated effort to diet and exercise regularly.
He added that if individuals tried and failed to reduce their weight, the clinic would offer either surgical or non-surgical treatment with medication.
Their surgical threshold is a BMI of 35 – a healthy BMI for adults between 18.5 and 24.9 – or when a patient has started to develop complications such as hypertension. arterial or diabetes.
Dr. Juneja, who has been treating bariatric patients for 15 years, said that about 55% of her patients were women and 45% were men.
"We are trying to do lock surgery to reduce the size of the stomach or [carry out] gastric bypbad surgery, "he said. "It reduces the appetite so that the patient is eating smaller portions of food.
"I see a lot of obese young people who need treatment. Most have acquired their parenting habits of poor diet and lack of exercise. "
Bariatric surgeon Dr. Girish Juneja. A recent study found that 71% of young Emirati men were overweight or obese. Chris Whiteoak / The National
If patients have a BMI less than 35 and are not eligible for surgery, they can choose alternative procedures.
Gastric balloons can be inserted into the stomach via a pill or with the help of an optical instrument called an endoscope.
Once in the stomach, the balloon is inflated to limit appetite and patients can lose between 15 and 22 kg in the space of three to four months. The surgery can cost up to 50,000 dirhams.
Dr. Ayman Soliman, a consultant in bariatric surgery at Zulekha Hospital in Dubai, said doctors in the United Arab Emirates were struggling to meet the demand for corrective surgery.
He revealed that the number of patients he had surgically treated for obesity had increased by 425% in just three years, from 120 procedures in 2015 to 630 in 2017.
He also stated that some of his patients had returned for a third or fourth procedure after gaining weight.
"We are accumulating patients from the long waiting list in public hospitals," he said. The National.
"Many obese patients regained weight lost in previous surgeries.
"The goal is to treat obesity, not just for obesity. Surgery is not everything, the patient's behavior and lifestyle are the important points of stress.
Last Updated: July 10, 2019 15:00
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