To felicitate those who have got rid of their excess fat, Evolve 2016 was recently organised in the city that marked their victory over obesity. Evolve is an annual celebration event conducted by Dr Jayashree Todkar since its inception in 2014.

Evolve 2016 which is an event organised to encourage the determination of bariatric patients witnessed participation from over 100 patients in the city of Mumbai. In its 12th anniversary, bariatric patients from across regions shared their weight-loss stories, including their health issues before surgery and their current health status.

Obesity kills the mindset of the person as they are victims of taunts and biasness due to their weight. The event was attended by Chief Guest Dr D Y Patil, Former Governor of Bihar and West Bengal, who expressed his thoughts on obesity treatment in India. He said, “Obesity affects the overall personality of the person, including his social life. People generally have lot of apprehensions of undergoing Bariatric surgery, which needs to be changed. I suggest Dr Jayshree Todkar should maintain a database of the number of bariatric surgeries that she performed”

Elaborating about the event, Dr Jayashree Todkar said, “Obesity decreases the life-span, physical activity of an individual and leads to psycho-socio problems. It’s a stigma that needs attention. The main aim of the event is to create awareness about obesity as a disease and other health issues around it.” The event emphasized on a strong message that obesity can be treated by scientific help. Through simple bariatric surgery, 180 health problems of an obese person can be controlled.

The participants had many things to be proud of after their surgery. Narrating his experience, Saurabh Deshmukh, said, “At the age of 23, I weighed 175 kgs. Because of my weight I faced multiple health issues like high BP, thyroid and was almost on the verge of diabetes. Today, with all the scientific methods, I now weigh 107 kg after which I see my health problems deteriorating. I can’t go on to explain how my life has changed.”

 Talking more on this, Dr Todkar said, “With this, women facing infertility issues due to obesity, people who were unable to walk/run, people who couldn’t find a spouse due to obesity etc, are today leading a happy confident life. They will join the cause to create awareness on obesity being a serious disease which can be cured.”

“We are trying to make an attempt through this event to draw attention of many people towards the cause. We are talking of the high end problems which are coming up because of the root causes. The root causes are highly neglected. The cost of the health economy is divided into two parts- one part is for treating the complication and the other is treating the root causes. The wisdom is to treat the root cause. This root cause is not a lifestyle disorder, it is a disease. Science has defined it as a disease and by labelling it as a lifestyle disorder we are only trying to neglect the seriousness of it. We want to draw attention of the people to the basic problem which is causing more than 118 diseases. So, we have to treat that, says Dr Jayashree Todkar.

Dr. Sujit Chatterjee, CEO, Dr. L H Hiranandani Hospital said “We should not underestimate obesity. Our mission is to uplift a healthy community. It is overwhelming to see such an overwhelming response, which indicates people’s commitment towards creating awareness about obesity.”

Dr. Jayashree Todkar, is the first lady Bariatric surgeon from Asia has been appointed the Secretary of ‘Obesity Surgery Society of India’ (OSSI). OSSI is India’s national association for bariatric surgeons and allied health professionals, involved in delivering comprehensive bariatric and metabolic surgical care. Located at Powai in Mumbai, Dr L H Hiranandani Hospital is a 240 bed multi-specialty hospital. It is the first NABH accredited multi-specialty hospital in Mumbai and among the first few in India.