Feeling depressed? Blame your excess fat 

With a large majority of depression patients unable to gain control over their body weight, advanced treatment measures like Bariatric surgery offer an effective and safe solution to manage obesity

“Obesity is strongly linked with depression and both conditions are associated with a number of co-morbidities. It has been observed that obese people especially women are often stigmatised, resulting in low self-esteem and depression.

Moreover, depressed people are more likely to have sedentary lifestyle and practice poor eating habits, such as binging, which further leads to weight gain,” says Dr. Mahidhar Valeti, Laparoscopic Bariatric Surgeon and Managing Director of Asian Bariatric Centre.

Terming obesity as an ‘escalating global epidemic’, the World Health Organization states that global obesity rates have doubled in the past three decades. Obesity is the fifth-largest cause of mortality in the world, causing more deaths than of people underweight.

On the other hand, depression has been estimated to affect 350 million people across the world. Experts point out that obese people have a 20 per cent higher risk of depression.

Apart from binge eating, reduced physical activity and body dissatisfaction issues which result in weight gain, depressed people often have deregulated levels of cortisol hormone in their blood. This leads to overeating and increased fat tissue production.

Although right changes in lifestyle could help maintain a healthy body weight, at times underlying medical conditions, such as hormonal problems, genetics or problems in the knee that make physical activity very difficult, make the weight loss process very difficult, even impossible. And this is where medical interventions like Bariatric surgery come into play.

“Bariatric surgery is an option for people suffering from extreme obesity when diet and exercise are ineffective or when there are medical complications related to obesity. When combined with moderate physical activity, healthy diet and nutritional supplements, surgery has been shown to achieve and maintain weight-loss,” says Dr. Mahidhar Valeti.