Dangers of losing weight

Before he could be served the arrest warrant for his P7.4-billion plunder case, former House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez placed himself under hospital detention last Monday. Romualdez beat the warrant servers to the draw by admitting himself to Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan City.

The scene vividly showed the hospital monitoring equipment connected to the body of Romualdez: oximeter 99; pulse rate 81 and blood pressure at 118/76. Not to be un-Christian about it, but these were normal conditions showing the patient is not in any life-threatening situation. But we’re not all doctors of medicine to conclude that Romualdez is feigning, or was really experiencing a health crisis.

Perhaps the origin of his anxiety attacks started building up in the aftermath of the flood control scandal. He was forced to resign as Speaker on Sept. 17 last year. He purportedly did this to allow an unhindered investigation by the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) into alleged anomalies in flood control projects. He was immediately replaced by Isabela Rep. Faustino “Bojie” Dy III as new Speaker.

Unconfirmed reports say that Romualdez allegedly tried diabetes medication for weight management. Sources claimed he stopped taking the medication due to strong gastrointestinal side effects such as nausea and vomiting. He reportedly lost as much as 20 pounds.

At the Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum last Wednesday, we could not help but ask about the dangers of the fast-becoming fad of crash diet programs for weight reduction. Our panel of experts at the news forum strongly warned against crash dieting in a bid to lose unwanted pounds without proper medical guidance from doctors.

“Obesity is a chronic disease,” declared Dr. Nemencio Nicodemos Jr., an endocrinologist at the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital and past president of the Philippine Association for the Study of Overweight and Obesity. Nicodemos cited with concern obesity is always linked with diabetes, another disease which could be fatal if not managed well by proper medication.

Our other guests, Karen Villanueva of the Obesity Philippines Association and Wei Sun, general manager of Novo Nordisk, could not agree more. Villanueva and Wei chorused in attesting that obesity also affects mental wellness and can lead to psychological issues such as depression and low self-esteem.

While he may not think he was obese, Romualdez obviously was overweight while he was still House Speaker. He had a big paunch before, to say the least. There is no official or publicly recorded data though for the exact weight of Romualdez.

Coming out from a self-imposed absence from public view, Romualdez was noticeably thinner and also appeared gaunt.

The Leyte congressman surprised many of his House colleagues and the public when he re-emerged leaner in February this year. Sources attributed it to underlying diabetes management. The reduced weight of Romualdez coincided with his political fallout with his first cousin, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM). It all started with PBBM’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) in July last year while Romualdez was re-elected Speaker of the 20th Congress.

For several months, Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla threatened to file charges of graft, plunder and bribery allegations against Romualdez related to the alleged “ghost” and other Congress-approved flood control projects. Then as Speaker, he faced the ICI and responded to the allegations, which he has consistently denied. After seven months of investigations, the ombudsman filed the plunder case against him last Monday at the anti-graft court.

Incidentally, Obesity Prevention Awareness is observed every first week of September as mandated by Proclamation No.162 issued by former president Joseph Estrada. Signed on Aug. 21,1999, the proclamation declared that obesity was one of the country’s serious health problems.

As defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), obesity is a complex disease which involves an excessive and unhealthy amount of fats. Not only does the body expand in size, the person with obesity problem becomes increasingly at risk and susceptible to developing life-threatening illnesses, Nicodemos explained. He cited the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) records that showed obesity is the main cause of the five top killer diseases of Filipinos, namely heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and certain cancers.

Coinciding with the World Patients Safety Day, the WHO declared the observance every Sept.17 to raise global awareness about patient safety and united action by all countries and international partners to reduce patient harm.

Unfortunately for Romualdez, his rights to hospital detention is still under consideration by the three-man justices of the 3rd Division of the Sandiganbayan that issued the warrant of arrest against him. His attending doctors at the Cardinal Santos Hospital were grilled yesterday to justify his lawyers’ petition for hospital detention and not be taken to jail at the Payatas Detention Center in Quezon City.

If his petition will not be granted, Romualdez will join Sen. Jinggoy Estrada at the Payatas Jail. The senator was earlier detained also for plunder on the alleged kickbacks from the Bulacan flood control project anomalies. Lawyers of Sen. Jinggoy earlier intimated they might ask also for hospital detention for their client who may have to undergo knee surgery. His left knee snapped on Aug. 26, causing a severe tear that required medical attention and an X-ray.

Doctors noted the senator suffers from severe osteoarthritis in both knees. His father, the erstwhile president Estrada, had to undergo knee replacement surgery in December 2004 while also under detention for plunder. The anti-graft court allowed Mr. Estrada to fly to Hong Kong where the surgery was successfully done and he then flew back to his detention at Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal.

The knee problems of father and son are largely traced to carrying too much body weight. Sen. Jinggoy previously underwent bariatric surgery to reduce his stomach size and curb his appetite. The surgery was done to help manage his weight by making his stomach smaller.

Bariatric surgery is a medical intervention to also address obesity, according to Dr. Nicodemos. Doctors’ advice: to avoid the dangers of weight loss is to eat less and move more.