The UAE's efforts to drive down obesity rates could deliver a $51 billion boost to productivity, keep the military fighting fit and raise educational standards, a report has found.About 32 per cent of the UAE population is on course to be obese by 2031. The condition heightens the risk of diabetes, heart disease and hypertension.A joint study by US pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly and market analysts Whiteshield, launched in collaboration with the Ministry of Economy and Tourism, suggests the figure could be reduced to 18 per cent in the same time frame, with accelerated intervention.The biggest gains could be made in key areas of health, by reducing care costs by around $1.5 billion and increasing life expectancy by 2.4 years. Healthier outlookThe Whiteshield report forecasts a further 75,000 additional births due to a reduction in obesity-related health conditions.Experts said school pupils would also benefit, with those of a healthy weight more likely to outperform those who are obese academically.Prof Arya Sharma, of the University of Alberta and medical co-director of the Alberta Health Services Provincial Obesity Strategy, said the use of weight loss GLP1 drugs was also key.Foundayo, produced by Eli Lilly and approved for use in the UAE last month, and the oral version of Novo Nordisk’s obesity medication, Wegovy, have been successful in helping people lose weight in the US and maintain improvement with a daily pill. “There's a very complex biology here that actually drives obesity and people living with it,” he said.Reducing obesity rates can have wide-ranging benefits for the health of the nation. PAInfo“We also know that obesity can happen pretty much at any stage in life. When you look at treatment, the most effective form of obesity management was bariatric surgery. It had very effective, great results but it's surgery.“Lifestyle changes work if you're talking about losing a couple of kilos,” Prof Sharma added. “But when we talk about people having to lose 10kg to 20kg more, and keep it off, lifestyle generally does not provide those kind of results. The GLP1 drugs have radically changed that.”Meanwhile, improving physical fitness of young Emiratis could expand the pool of those eligible for military service to an additional 5,700 young people.Fighting obesityDoctors are being given access to a wider range of pharmacological tools to tackle obesity rates, from bariatric surgery to innovative new oral drugs entering the market that encourage rapid weight loss and an ability to maintain a healthy lifestyle.“Ultimately obesity management is not about weight loss, it's about reducing comorbidities and other risk factors,” said Prof Sharma.” Now we have more potent, longer-acting drugs that have doubled the amount of weight loss and had a very significant impact on comorbidities. “This is a game-changer but there are issues. Obesity is getting the attention it deserves, with effective tools that allow us to manage it.“But on the other hand, we're dealing with a lot of misinformation on social media and a healthcare workforce that hasn't really been trained in obesity management.”Challenges aheadDr Husam Ali Barakat, consultant gastroenterologist at Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed Hospital in Sharjah, said more options for obesity treatment was good news for patients, but there were still major challenges.“Obesity is not a very easy disease to treat, the more ways we have to tackle it, the better,” he said. “We are seeing many patients with chronic liver disease, secondary to obesity, and most have heart problems.“However, lowering levels to 18 per cent by 2031? I'm not sure if this is going to be achievable without a multidisciplinary approach to obesity as a disease.”Dynamic approach Traditionally, doctors have turned to lifestyle modification, talking to patients about diet and exercise, then moving into endoscopic procedures such as intragastric balloons.More recently, bariatric surgery has become a common treatment of obesity in the UAE.“No medication that is completely safe, especially if we're going to use it for a long term use,” said Dr Barakat. “But the long-term cost on the patient and side effects of obesity by itself will overweigh any side effects of these medications.”The Whiteshield report found Emiratis had a far higher obesity prevalence than expatriates, at around 47 per cent compared to 31 per cent. This could be attributed to a combination of genetic predispositions, lifestyle habits, socioeconomic conditions, environmental influences and urbanisation, the report said. “The report implies that obesity is not a lifestyle choice but a chronic, progressive disease demanding the same structured, multidisciplinary intervention we apply to any other major non-communicable disease,” said Dr Raghunath Raja Marimuthu, a specialist in gastrointestinal surgery at Aster Hospital Mankhool in Dubai.“The downstream consequences of untreated obesity, from gallstone disease to advanced colorectal malignancy, [is that they] are conditions far harder to treat than the disease that preceded them. “This report must now translate into tangible action: standardised referral pathways, equitable insurance coverage for both medical and surgical obesity treatment, and investment in dedicated metabolic surgery programmes across healthcare systems.”