KARACHI: Obesity has been described as one of the fastest growing `disease' worldwide. It is estimated that 1.7 billion people worldwide are either overweight or obese.
This was stated here on Wednesday by Dr. Masood Jawaid, an Assistant Professor Surgery and Incharge E-Learning at Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) while delivering a lecture.
He pointed out that Pakistan is ranked 9th among world's most obese nations. Every 4th person is overweight or obese.
`FightObesity.Info' is Pakistan's first patient portal that will create awareness about the importance of fitness and healthy lifestyle in fighting obesity in Pakistan among people who are suffering from obesity', it was further pointed out.
Dr. Masood Jawaid, delivered the lecture on `Fight Obesity- Web Portal' at the 36th public awareness seminar, held at Dr. Panjwani Center for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research (PCMD), University of Karachi.
Dr. Panjwani Center, International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), University of Karachi, and Virtual Education Project Pakistan (VEPP) jointly organised the seminar.
Dr. Masood Jawaid along with his team also informed the participants about the importance `FightObesity.Info' that will provide a platform for obese patients and the population at large to gather and engage with each other in order to get educated and modify their behavior which either reduces their obesity or prevents them from becoming obese.
He said, `We aim to fight obesity in our country and alleviate the miseries associated with this disease. Overweight or obesity is linked to a wide range of health problems, including diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, indigestion and etc'.
Through FightObesity.info we intend to create a support group for obese patients and their families, motivate fitness conscious people to interact with each other, share their lifestyle experiences and provide them with disease information resources, he said and added that they also plan to connect the patients with doctors to get personalized advice along with maintaining their personal health records online.
Dr. Masood further pointed out that the fundamental causes of overweight and obesity are genetics, overeating, a diet high in simple carbohydrates, frequency of eating, physical inactivity and etc. Childhood obesity is really a complex health issue, he added
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2016
