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Latest Online Training from Nutrition Network Addresses The Worldwide Obesity Crisis

Obesity: Risk & Reversal

The Nutrition Network is preparing to launch its newest training in its elective training series Obesity Risk & Reversal. Amidst the global obesity crisis and its significant associations with COVID-19 fatalities, this essential training is aimed at healthcare professionals and focuses on the effective treatment, prevention, management and reversal of obesity in clinical practice.

Worldwide, obesity has nearly tripled since 1975, with 1.9 billion adults considered overweight in 2016 (1). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that obesity is as big a risk for COVID-19 as having a suppressed immune system or chronic lung or kidney disease (2). This has called for urgent interventions in treating and preventing obesity globally. 

“Obesity is a slow and insidious expression of the human body’s struggle to deal with over-nutrition and, in many cases, malnutrition. Perhaps because there seems to be no way to reverse it long-term, it has become accepted, often with much frustration and shame, and has been wrongly associated with poor willpower,” says Dr Hassina Kajee, Specialist Physician and Medical Director of the Nutrition Network. 

Obesity: Risk & Reversal brings together industry experts and includes lectures by Prof Tim Noakes, Dr Frank Lipman, Dr Brian Lenzkes, Dr Robert Cywes, Dr Holden MacRae and Dr Hassina Kajee, to name but a few.

“Obesity and diabetes are integrally related. It is so important, as medical practitioners, to understand the mechanisms (and the politics) behind the causes of both obesity and diabetes. This module explores these in greater depth than I remember learning, even when I did a post-graduate diploma in diabetes. It helps dispel the myth that it is all about calories, but rather deals with how the quality of food matters, and food can be medicine in healing these twin issues,” says Dr Neville Wellington, diabetes expert and Medical Director of the Nutrition Network.

This training is said to be a must for medical and allied health professionals and is designed to provide a comprehensive and robust guide to the prevention and treatment of obesity. It forms part of the advanced training curriculum offered by the Nutrition Network and can be selected as one of the required trainings along the certification path to becoming a Nutrition Network Practitioner. 

 Topics included in this training are:

  • Obesity & Diet: An Introduction 
  • The Metabolic Effects of Adipose Tissue as an Endocrine Organ 
  • Obesity & Lifestyle: Functional Medicine Models 
  • NAFLD: Pathophysiology & Clinical Manifestations 
  • Reversing the Obesity Epidemic: The Eat Better Model 
  • Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Model to Rebuild Health Structures 
  • Prevention & Management of Obesity in Childhood 
  • The Clinical Associations of Obesity 
  • Obesity & Exercise 
  • Obesity & Diabetes

In an excerpt from his lecture “Obesity & Diet: An Introduction”, Prof Tim Noakes says: “Understanding nuances of our own biology casts the food industry’s business plans in a very different light. What did we expect to happen when this industry embarked on a highly profitable business model that made food high in sugar, fat and salt widely available; conditioned us to associate their products with positive emotions; and created environments that foster these positive associations?”

In his lecture, Dr Frank Lipman, leader in functional and integrative medicine and bestselling author, discusses the many lifestyle factors that play a role in obesity. Dr Lipman discusses obesity and its causes, stating that it is a multifactorial condition, with no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to diet. He discusses the need for medical practitioners to consider a number of factors during a patient’s or client’s life cycle and the value that health coaches bring to the medical profession as being instrumental in helping patients implement lasting change.

Professor of Exercise Science Dr Holden MacRae discusses the role of exercise in the treatment and management of obesity. In his lecture, Dr MacRae addresses the existing exercise recommendations and guidelines for adults and how they have not been updated in recent years. He also goes on to explain a number of misconceptions related to exercise.

The training also includes an obesity panel discussion, which finds experts Dr Robert Lustig, Dr Mark Cucuzzella and the Nutrition Network Board discussing the topic “Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Model to Rebuild Health Structures”.   

As part of the launch of the Obesity: Risk & Reversal training, Nutrition Network is giving three members from the first 100 enrolees a chance to win a personalised, one-on-one session with Prof Tim Noakes.  

They are also offering a special reduced rate to all medical students wishing to apply for this course. If you are currently a medical student, kindly submit proof of your student admission and a member of the team will get back to you with further information.   

All other applications for enrolment can be submitted here

References

  1. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight
  2. https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20200714/why-obesity-may-stack-the-deck-for-covid-19-risk

Apply to enrol in one of our CPD Accredited online professional trainings today.