Sangwoo Oh, Professor at Dongguk University Ilsan Hospital
Modern humans are evolving into spiders. He doesn’t have the agility of a superhero like Spider-Man. A ‘spider-shaped obese person’ with thin arms and legs and a bulging belly is just writhing around on the desk and sofa. If you only gain weight without muscles, secondary damage occurs to your knees and lower back. If you diet excessively in a short period of time, you will only lose muscle. How to lose visceral fat in the following order: upper abdomen – upper body fat – lower abdomen?
Oh Sang-woo, a professor of family medicine at Dongguk University Ilsan Hospital, is a ‘white-haired obesity doctor.’ He has been treating and researching obese patients for nearly 30 years. He is a regular on various terrestrial broadcasting stations. Recently, he played an active role as a skinny obesity solver in episodes 1 and 2 of EBS’s ‘Precious Body’. Professor Oh is extremely wary of misinformation and commercial information. He digs into wrong diets, wrong eating habits, and lifestyle habits like an awl. He places more emphasis on the risk of abdominal obesity than body mass index (BMI, weight divided by height squared) obesity.
Q: What is abdominal obesity?
A : “Regardless of height, waist circumference is considered. For men, this means over 90cm (35.4 inches), and for women, over 85cm (33.5 inches). “If you sit and work on the computer for a long time, do not exercise much, and enjoy drinking in the evening, you will develop spider-shaped obesity with a bulging stomach and thin limbs.”
Q: Is that dangerous?
A : “Visceral fat is very dangerous. It’s worse than limb fat. Belly fat is located in layers between internal organs and organs. This causes diabetes, high blood pressure, hyperlipidemia, stroke, and glaucoma. It also causes myocardial infarction. It is closely related to the development of cancer of the kidney, thyroid, prostate, breast, and colon. Subcutaneous fat can also have serious effects depending on its location. For example, if fat accumulates around the neck, it can cause severe snoring, prevent deep sleep, and lead to sleep apnea, which can lead to sudden death.”
Q: Is obesity hereditary?
A : “Not necessarily. Less than 5% of obesity is caused purely by a single gene. However, if a parent is obese, there is a 40-70% chance that the child will also be obese. Various genes appear in connection with the surrounding environment, lifestyle habits, and eating habits. “It is important to change these habits.”
Q: Professor Oh shook his head and said, “I do not recommend” a diet that drastically reduces carbohydrates.
A : “It is true that if you reduce carbohydrates, you will lose weight in a short period of time. But it won’t last for a few months. Your brain and heart need energy to function. If glucose is not supplied, problems occur in the brain. Also, extreme restriction of carbohydrates leads to muscle loss. If your basal metabolic rate is insufficient due to decreased muscle mass, the yo-yo effect will occur later. “It is by no means a good method for longevity or brain health.”
Q: They say losing belly fat is the most difficult.
A : “It’s a lie. It’s because of the wrong diet. If you diet properly, you will lose belly fat first. There are people who lose weight starting from their face, and that means they lose muscle. If you do it right, you will lose visceral fat and belly fat. “It disappears in the following order: upper abdomen, upper body fat, and lower abdomen.”
Q: Professor Oh is also interested in treating obesity in low-income people.
A : “Some low-income, severely obese patients suffer from depression and anxiety. The lower the income, the more severe and extremely obese people are. These people are in desperate need of obesity treatment, but can they afford medicine that costs 400,000 won or 1 million won per month? It is more difficult for low-income obese people to find jobs. There was a time when a woman who had lost some weight through intensive treatment came to the clinic with a bright smile and said that she had found a difficult job as an intern at a cafe. But soon after, she was rushed to the emergency room and was left in shock. “The owner said, ‘The customers don’t like it so don’t come out.’”
Q: There are quite a few cases of anorexia and bulimia among teenagers.
A : “Children like this are not growing properly. In severe cases, mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia may develop, and symptoms of muscle loss may appear. It leads to diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hyperlipidemia, and high blood pressure in people in their 20s to 40s. If a child binge eats after not eating for a few days, you should recognize it as an illness and take him to a mental health clinic. Schools don’t teach how to eat healthily. Health teachers or nutrition teachers do not do this. We need to create a wet disorder education program. High-risk groups must be identified and brought to the clinic. “The school must step forward.”
Q: How do menopausal women manage obesity?
A : “When estrogen (female hormone) decreases, visceral fat accumulates, and belly fat appears due to diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and metabolic syndrome. It is a time when you gain weight. Appetite increases significantly and stress or depression worsens obesity. You need to exercise more and pay more attention to your diet. Hormone therapy is controversial. Increases the risk of breast cancer. “If menopausal disorders are very severe and depression is very severe, hormone treatment may be considered.”
More details can be found at The JoongAng Plus.
Shin Seong-sik (ssshin@joongang.co.kr)
2023-09-24 15:01:00
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