Diseases associated with lifestyle practices bedevil our
population and this is true both in the United States and around the world with
42 per cent of Americans expected to be obese by 2030 and one third of all
American adults face problems with diabetes by 2050, Dr. David Katz told a
public health symposium at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar last night.
[March 12]
“Obesity threatens the US future as much as it threatens the
future of Qatar,” Dr. Katz said in his keynote address. “These problems are global. Obesity is a
major problem that leads to many illnesses and diseases.”
But there remains hope for change with a return to basic
lifestyle changes, he said, stressing that personal motivation remains a crucial
element in changing dietary habits, raising activity levels and adopting
healthier options to ward off the possibility of illnesses such as
cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity and cancer which have the highest mortality
rates across the globe.
Dr. Katz was addressing a continuing medical education
Global and Public Health symposium that focused on emerging trends in health
care and lifestyle diseases with a special focus on Qatar. Dr. Katz is known
internationally for his expertise in nutrition, weight management and chronic
disease prevention. He is also the director of Yale University’s Prevention
Research Center.
He blames lack of physical activity, tobacco, poor diet as
the main causes of early death by illness and it is something that we can all
control in our daily lives.
The symposium, co-sponsored by the Supreme Council of Health
and WCMC-Q, also saw the launch of the Journal of Local and Global Health
Perspectives. It is an international peer reviewed, open access journal from
QScience.com. WCMC-Q Associate Dean for Global and Public Health and Professor
of Public Health Dr. Ravi Mamtani and Professor Albert Lowenfels from New York
Medical College are the joint editors-in-chief.
Dr. Faleh Mohamed Hussain Ali, Assistant Secretary General
for Policy Affairs at Qatar Supreme Council of Health (SCH), welcomed the new
publication as a much needed and timely arrival for researchers, physicians and
medical students.
“We are missing such journals and it is a welcome addition
to the medical publications landscape and that it will also be a great contribution
towards the health of our nation as a whole,” Dr. Faleh said. “This is
something that shows perspective, both in local and international dimensions,”
he said. “Having something that looks at the scientific issues from a local and
international perspective is a great benefit to us all.”
WCMC-Q Dean, Dr. Javaid Sheikh welcomed the panel of speakers,
which also included Professor Stephanie Abbuhl, a leading women’s advocacy
speaker from Pennsylvania University where she is the executive director of
Focus on Health and Leadership for Women. Professor Abbuhl provided a
perspective on advancing women in medicine and science, Dr. Mamtani who
highlighted chronic disease risk factors and recent findings in Qatar and
Professor Lowenfels who focused on health, disease and the intestinal
microbiome.
Dr. Mamtani said lifestyle diseases are on the rise in Qatar
as recent research shows. Obesity is an important risk factor and the number of
people living in Qatar who are overweight is on the rise. There are some
worrisome times ahead for the number of current lifestyle diseases future
projections. An example of this is the increasing prevalence of cardiovascular
diseases and diabetes.
“Globally 63 per cent of people die from non-communicable
diseases. In these diseases the top four diseases are cardiovascular diseases,
cancer, respiratory diseases and diabetes and they constitute about 80 per cent
of mortalities,” Dr. Mamtani said
Prevalence of these diseases and risk factors is also widely
prevalent in Qatar. About 70m per cent
of people in Qatar are overweight and 41 per cent are obese in recent data
provided by the Supreme Council of Health.
“These diseases, as
science has shown, kill prematurely, they compromise quality of life and we
also know they are influenced by behavior. Even though genetics is an important
component, these issues can be prevented or their onset delayed,” Dr. Mamtani
said.
“Often we think that we need to do a lot to prevent these
illnesses. That is not the case. Often times simply making some marginal
changes in case of obesity for example as little as eight to 10 pounds
reduction will contribute to improving the health. Equally important, that even
with these simple self-care approaches such as a healthy diet, regular physical
activity and maintaining a normal body weight are immensely helpful in reducing
the incidents of diseases such as diabetes. But knowing all this, the evidence
that supposes this is not being implemented,” he said.
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