Is obesity curable? If so, by what means?

Is Obesity Curable

Q. Is obesity curable? If so, by what means?

A. Practically all cases of obesity are cur­able if proper means are adopted. It must be understood, however, by a cure is not meant complete restoration to a normal condition. This is by no means always possible; in fact, in cases of extreme obesity it is not safe even if it were possible to reduce the patient's weight to his original standard. If, for ex­ample, a person whose normal weight is 175 pounds has acquired a weight of 350 pounds he should be content to reduce his weight to 225 or 250 pounds. A reduction of weight of 150 or 175 pounds could scarcely be accomplished in such a case without doing the individual serious damage. A great accumulation of fat in the abdomen stretches the abdominal muscles. so that when this condition has existed for a con­siderable length of time the removal of the fat will leave the abdominal muscles in such a re­laxed condition that they will not afford proper support to the viscera. The fat which has been present in excess has been deposited all about the various internal organs, in some instances in masses an inch or more in thickness. When this padding is absorbed, a relaxed condition is developed which often gives rise to pain and miseries of various sorts, such as those which attend the condition known as floating kidney for example. The treatment of obesity is simple in appearance, but not always easy in execution. The average obese patient is over-fat because he has eaten too much food and taken too little ex­ercise, so the essential features of treatment are, first, a diminution of the amount of food, second, an increase of the amount of exercise. A decrease in food intake is by far the most im­portant of all measures which can be adopted in the treatment of this disease. As obese pa­tients generally have excellent appetites the reduction of food intake is often a matter of much distress and inconvenience especially if the dietary is unwisely managed. It is by no means necessary that the patient should fast or even that the amount eaten should be diminished. It is best that the full volume of food should be maintained or even that the food should be increased in volume, but instead of such concentrated foodstuffs as bread, potatoes, sugar and fats of various sorts the patient should restrict his dietary to fruits and vege­tables with the exception of the potato. In many instances this is all the restriction required. The patient should abstain from the use of fat meats, butter, and other fats, cream and milk with the exception of skimmed milk, bread and other cereals and potatoes. Lettuce, celery, greens of all sorts, fresh vegetables and juicy fruits may be eaten freely. In this way the appetite is satisfied even though the actual amount of nutriment may be very greatly diminished. In general, it is necessary that the obese patient should diminish the amount of actual food substance eaten to one-half the amount he has been accustomed to take or two­ thirds of the normal ration for a person of his height.

The so-called Karell method of treating obesity consists in feeding the patient exclu­sively on a diet of skimmed milk. The patient's diet is restricted to one pint of skimmed milk a day. The milk is given in doses of a few spoonfuls at intervals of two or three hours.

In certain cases surplus fat may be removed by a surgical operation.