involves making permanent and significant
changes to the hypothalamus,” Dr. Whar-
ton said.
Fad diets fail because they deal only with a
person’s willpower rather than the under-
lying neurohormonal mechanisms. “It is
unlikely that a person can maintain weight
loss with any diet. So we can almost call
even healthy diets fads when it comes to
weight because it’s unlikely for any life-
style modification to keep weight off long
term in most people,” Dr. Wharton said.
Only three per cent of patients following a
healthy diet are an exception to Dr. Whar-
ton’s statement.
Consequently, there is a demand for effec-
tive treatment. “There’s not one treatment
that applies to all people living with obesity.
There are multiple treatments and as a re-
sult, a multidisciplinary team is necessary,”
Dr. Wharton said. But how many of these
options are readily available to employees
through their insurance coverage?
Equipped with this new research on neu-
rohormonal mechanisms, Fuchs advocates
for the inclusion of obesity-related treat-
ments in employee benefits packages.
Dr. Sean Wharton, Medical Director
at Wharton Medical Clinic
Cathy Fuchs, Private Drug Plan Partnerships,
White Willow Benefit Consultants Inc.
JUNE 2016
H
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