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Features
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6/16/2011
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Tackling the South Asian obesity issue
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Matt Jelley, commercial director for Trimedica Ltd, examines how obesity and diabetes in the UK-based South Asian population follows an alarming trend and how pharmacy can play its part in bucking it...
There are varying factors as to why the South Asian population are particularly prone to obesity and Type 2 diabetes. A genetic basis is very likely while South Asians appear to be more insulin resistant to Caucasians. Furthermore, Type 2 diabetes increases with the onset of obesity and much of this is put down to low levels of a physical activity, a high fat diet, urbanisation and smoking.
Regardless, the worrying statistics demonstrate that someone of South Asian Origin has up to five times higher a risk of developing Type 2 diabetes while it is prevalent in around 25% of Indo Asian adults.
While gastric bands have courted many headlines in recent times, particularly as the maths tends to suggest that it is cheaper for the NHS to fit one rather than bear the £29 million cost reported in August 2010 of Obesity, shouldn’t we be looking closer at the alternatives rather than the ‘treatments’?
Pharmacies across the whole of the UK offer discreet and convenient weight management services. Plans of action can be arranged and monitored and healthy lifestyles and dietary advice given; often in conjunction with a weight loss product.
For our part at Trimedica Ltdt, we have recently launched Obesimed solely through the pharmacy supply chain for these very reasons. We saw the value of the health care professional’s advice and knowhow as being instrumental; it cannot be found in supermarkets or health food stores.
It contains Omtec19, when this leaves the stomach it binds to bile acids in the small intestine, and carries them out of the body in the faeces, and clinical studies have shown significant reductions in serum cholesterol and LDL.
The effect that Omtec19 has on the body is based purely on its physical properties. It is not a drug or a food supplement, and it does not act on the body’s metabolism. It is not a magic bullet for dieters, and it should appeal to those who are wary of drug side-effects or miracle diets.
Risks
It does not metabolise at all however, we still insist that it is taken with the guidance of the pharmacist. In India the BMI overweight and obesity levels have been lowered from the Caucasian standard of 25 and 30 to 23 and 25 to reflect the risks to their own population.
There have been calls from many parts for the obesity thresholds to be lowered for the UK based South Asian population, primarily because South Asians have a more centralised distribution of body fat and can show a raised obesity risk with a lower waist circumference. Though, as yet, NICE does not recognise this.
So it is vital that any dietary advice is tailored to suit the different needs of ethnic groups within the UK. As South Asians have a higher risk of obesity and therefore Type 2 diabetes, pharmacy can, once again, play its part in reducing the strains upon secondary care and help to cut that £29 million bill.
Last year Euromonitor International estimated sales of OTC obesity drugs at US$380 million while slimming products was in excess of US$9 billion for 2009. As pharmacists that have to also run businesses we would urge you to look at the bottom line and take advantage of this market.
In addition to Type 2 diabetes, obesity can be the cause of many other illnesses including cardiovascular complaints and heart attacks. Pharmacy advice and weight management programmes do more than just help people to lose weight.
Pharmacists prevent further complications and reduce the flow of traffic into GP surgeries and onto hospitals. As it’s been recognised that South Asians have a different set of issues to Caucasians we have written educational materials to help you and your counter staff to recognise the differences. Healthy lifestyles are not a ‘one size fits all’ solution and need to be adjusted to suit.
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