weight loss and physicians

Some things really do not change very much. During medical school and my internal medicine residency, we basically learned nothing about helping people to lose weight. We, of course, were taught about the causal relationship of weight problems to heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, certain cancers, etc. We basically saw our mentors hand overweight patients diet plans or tell them to go to Weight Watchers, but little else was done to intervene. This was 1977-1984.

Fast forward to 2009. Posner has lots of gray hair, The Bee Gees are not on the radio every other song, and now the government is the major investor in car companies and banks. Lots of change. But, not in the physician's training/approach to weight loss. I was invited to give a Medical Grand Rounds talk to the Portsmouth Naval Hospital medical staff which is very exciting for me. I have not been back to the place I did my residency and they have built a new hospital since I left. Apparently, there is still virtually no "training" in helping people lose weight during the residencies.

Preventing major medical illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes is so much better than having to treat the sequelae of these life-altering diseases. If the epidemic of obesity can be reversed, millions of lives will be saved, quality of life would improve, and multiple billions of dollars could be saved. It starts in the school system teaching children about nutrition and the risks of being overweight, it continues at home where as parents, we should be more vigilant of our households' nutritional approach, and certainly in medical schools and residencies, young physicians should be given much more training in helping people lose weight. I appreciate very much the physicians in charge of the Grand Rounds at the Naval Hospital giving me the opportunity to educate some young physicians.