India sees 10 time increase in bariatric surgeries in last

The number of bariatric surgeries performed in the country has increased almost ten times over the last decade with over 10,000 such surgeries performed in the previous year.
"It (bariatric surgery) started in the early 21st century and over the last 10 years has increased by almost 10 times in India," said Dr Arun Prasad, vice president of Obesity and Metabolic Surgery Society of India (OSSI).
"While about 2-3 such bariatric operations (weight loss surgical procedure) were happening per month earlier in Delhi, now we see almost 50-60 per month. A record of over 10,000 such surgeries were performed last year in India and an estimate of 50,000 per year is projected by the specialists," he said.

More than 200 specialists from India, US, Canada and UK participated in the two-day conference on bariatric surgery held at Indraprashtha Apollo Hospital here.
The leading health experts talked about the increasing problem of obesity in India and pointed out that the problem of childhood obesity becomes difficult to control at a later age, forcing people to take the help of surgical procedures to reduce flab.
Such a situation, according to experts, leads to a mismatch of body metabolism during the most formative years of the person, something that becomes very difficult to reverse at a later age.

"This is not easy now as the body is already poised at a different level and metabolism is now skewed. Last resort for many individuals is bariatric or weight loss surgery which is now increasingly becoming a surgical speciality of its own," Prasad said.

The panel noted that children spend most of their time on video-games, mobile messaging services like WhatsApp and Facebook, due to shortage of playgrounds and evening activities for them in most of the Indian cities.
"At the same time, there is tremendous pressure on children to study more for competitive examinations. The only source for entertainment for the stressed out children is either video-games or WhatsApp, Facebook and laptops," he said.
The conference emphasized the importance of sensitising children and young parents about the issue.
"A chubby child is not 'healthy'. Processed food and shortcut meals are the biggest culprits. This, combined with the lifestyle pressures of young urban families, make healthy eating a real challenge," they noted.