Summit director and Cleveland Clinic physician Dr. Philip Schauer says the problem of obesity can’t be understated:
SCHAUER: Virtually every state in the union, every city struggles with this problem. Ohio and Cleveland specifically, we’re definitely in the top 25 percent of the nation in terms of obesity.
Obesity fuels the fire for other chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease.
Obesity is a major contributer to the nation’s healthcare bill and it’s a pain for employers. Schauer says there’s a good argument to be made for treating obesity as a medical and economic concern.
SCHAUER: We have representatives from Progressive, Parker Hannafin, and several other large companies in the region, who will be speaking about how they’re addressing this problem among their employees.
There will be discussion at this week’s summit about newly approved drugs and surgical techniques to treat obesity, as well as how to change the human behaviors that contribute to it.