Dieting, exercise alone not effective to control obesity: Expert

New Delhi, Sep 24 (UNI) Following a regimen of dieting and exercising alone is not enough to check obesity in a majority of cases, an international medical expert says.

''Obesity is a chronic disease and unfortunately-lifestyle intervention alone i.e, diet and exercise, fail in the majority of cases to produce long term success. Generally speaking only one out of 20 patients can maintain long term weight loss with lifestyle modification alone,''says Prof Philip James, the chairman of the international obesity task force for the international association for the study of obesity.

Instead, he says, the lifestyle modifications, combined with a technique called pharmacotherapy which involves the use of Subutramine, a centrally acting satiety enhancer currently available in more than 70 countries, can help patients to achieve and maintain long term weight loss as long as they continue on their medication.

Talking to UNI here, Professor James, who is in India to address a series of seminars in Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune and Mumbai, on "importance of Pharmacotherapy in Obesity Management- Global Trends", said,''long term weight loss maintenance is the key in obesity management and only medical treatment in the form of Pharmacotherapy can help achieve this.'' In this context, Prof James said Sibutramine is one of the widely approved pharmacotherapeutic options for obese patients.

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