Exercise and diet.” That’s the only advice doctors have their given patients living with obesity for far too long, says Dr. Sean Wharton, an internist who has authored new clinical guidelines for treating obesity in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ). He says Canadians living with obesity have traditionally been viewed as lazy and unmotivated and dismissed by the healthcare system.
But as of Tuesday, the day they were released, patients who struggle with obesity now have a document they can bring with them to their next medical appointment.
The guidelines are intended to end the stigma around obesity and to ensure patients get the care they need. Obesity should be treated as a chronic illness, he says. And that requires a three-pronged approach to treatment that doesn’t just focus on diet, as it has in the past.
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