Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-09-24-Speech-3-412"
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"en.20080924.34.3-412"2
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"Mr President, 27% of men, 38% of women and one child in four are now considered to be either overweight or obese in Europe, and there are some 400 000 new cases a year. This is a blight that is taking hold on European society. Information campaigns and preventive measures are certainly an effective response because, unfortunately, we are now confronted with a public health issue that is also developing into a social problem. Regrettably, obesity is also frequently associated with poverty and exclusion.
Much has been talked about information campaigns and prevention. I do not wish to go back over what has been said about food labelling, the role of the public authorities, school canteens, sports facilities, proper information, a healthy diet and the need for daily physical exercise.
However, I would draw attention to the important role played by health professionals, who are there to identify chronic health risks linked to obesity, including diabetes and cardiovascular disease and of course the consequences that such ailments have for overweight people. Prevention is achieved by exchanging best practices while at the same time respecting the principle of subsidiarity.
Studies have shown, for example, that a waist measurement greater than 88 cm for women, apart from during pregnancy, and above 102 cm for men is the definition of abdominal obesity and constitutes a health risk, and this applies irrespective of the person’s height. This very simple benchmark is still not being sufficiently recognised by GPs. Waistline measurement should therefore be made a simple point of reference for all patients and should trigger an immediate investigation of the associated risk factors, including glucose intolerance, which is a sign of pre-diabetes, excess cholesterol, triglycerides and arterial hypertension, and we also know, unfortunately, that all these symptoms point to the development of Alzheimer’s disease.
This is why we really need to accentuate the role that health professionals have to play in this area."@en1
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