A.M.A. Recognizes Obesity as a Disease GeoBeats
go to original June 27, 2013

The American Medical Association has decided to officially classify obesity as a disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over one third of Americans are obese.

Although obesity is associated with a variety of different health problems, like diabetes, or heart conditions, until now it was not recognized as a disease, but rather a condition that caused other diseases.

Now there are pharmaceutical drugs aimed at treating obesity including Qsymia and Belviq, which came on the market over the last year. The AMA's decision might influence both health care professionals and insurance providers to start treating obesity in a different way, which includes reimbursement for treatment of the disease.

One potential issue with the decision is that it will change the treatment from lifestyle choices to a more clinical approach.

The AMA's decision addresses the myriad of issues surrounding obesity saying: "there are hormonal and metabolic abnormalities not reversible by lifestyle interventions that will likely require multiple different risk stratified interventions for patients."

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