Joan Fields of Snow Hill lost 160 pounds and dropped from a size 28 to a size 8.
“I was so large, I really couldn’t exercise,” she said. “I didn’t feel good. I felt bad all the time. I had absolutely no energy. I ached all the time. Everything was a chore. I mean, I couldn’t enjoy my grandchildren.”
The 60-year-old had been battling weight all her life. Her health problems were so severe, she resorted to gastric bypass surgery, a risky procedure that reduces the size of the stomach. Even after the surgery, it was not an easy one-and-a-half years for Fields to shed the pounds.
But besides seeing a slimmer lady looking back at her in the mirror, Fields experienced numerous health benefits. She was able to stop taking medications for diabetes and high blood pressure and no longer deals with sleep apnea. An incurable blood disease she has didn’t go away, but its progression has slowed down.
Health problems, such as high blood pressure and cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease, stroke and sleep apnea, are risks that increase with obesity, said Dr. Shyamal K. Mitra, a cardiologist at Kinston Medical Specialists.
Mitra is conducting a series of workshops on the connection between obesity and health problems common in Eastern North Carolina. Mitra will discuss Obesity and Heart Disease at noon on Friday at the Lenoir Memorial Hospital auditorium. On Aug. 23, Obesity and Diabetes will be the subject of discussion.
“My focus is on preventing heart disease,” he said about Friday’s event, “and I believe that prevention is much better than treating the disease once you have it.”
Mitra, who is board certified in cardiology, obesity medicine and sleep medicine, said heart disease, diabetes and other common problems can be prevented, reduced or eliminated by keeping excess weight off.
Type 2 diabetes, Mitra said, is being diagnosed in younger people, even school-aged children.
“Eastern North Carolina has one of the highest obesity rates in the country,” he said, adding two main reasons are poor eating habits and lack of exercise.
Fried foods, junk foods and fast foods all contribute to weight gain, and the risk is compounded by having few safe places to walk or ride a bicycle, Mitra said.
The risk of health problems depends on where the fat is located. Mitra said a pear-shaped body — heavier hips and thighs — isn’t at a high risk like an apple-shaped body — with visceral fat accumulated around the stomach and chest.
“The visceral fat is more active,” he said, “in producing inflammatory hormones and stress hormones that cause diabetes and high blood pressure, leading to heart disease and strokes.”
Ernestine Harris, 66, of Kinston, has had numerous surgeries, including on both knees and several organs removed.
Weighing 238 pounds, she began seeing Mitra and attending his classes and got her diabetes and high blood pressure under control after losing 41 pounds.
“I just started eating better,” she said, “— watching what I eat.”
Harris said she rarely eats at restaurants or snacks on empty-calorie foods, and she drinks water instead of soda. She walks two miles a day when the weather isn’t too hot.
“I don’t hurt like I used to,” she said, “and I don’t take as much medication as I did at one point.”
In addition to visceral fat, deposits of fat around the neck also cause problems. Men who have a 17-inch neck and women who have a 16-inch neck or larger are prone to sleep apnea, Mitra said.
“One of the first places where a person loses weight is the neck,” he said, “for you deposit fat around your airways, especially in the neck area and that makes your airways narrow.”
Lose just 10 percent of your body weight and feel the relief of about 50 percent improvement of sleep apnea, he said. Mild to moderate cases may go away simply by losing weight, and severe cases will see much improvement, Mitra said.
Fields weighed 292 pounds. Her weight loss shrunk her neck size, and her breathing problems at night disappeared.
“My quality of life was so bad,” she said. “I didn’t realize how much weight affected my life.”
Her blood disease was getting worse, she had heart and thyroid problems, diabetes and high blood pressure. To have gastric bypass surgery, she had to undergo tests, see a psychiatrist, attend classes, get insurance approval and fully understand the risks.
Gastric bypass is a last-resort measure and involves a difficult recovery period, and it doesn’t work if you don’t change your eating habits, she said.
With no other hope in sight, she made the decision to have the surgery and then told her husband Jerry. She said it was his support, as well as the support of friends, and her faith in God that got her through the ordeal — one that is not for everyone.
For most people, making better food choices, cutting portions and exercising will greatly reduce many health problems.
“If you just reduce your calorie intake by 100 calories a day — which is just one cookie,” Mitra said, “you will lose 10 pounds by the end of the year.”
He recommends reducing calories and increasing activity through behavior modification — developing the mindset to make lifestyle changes —getting sufficient sleep and weighing each week.
Walking 30-40 minutes a day at a moderate pace, or the best one is able to do, will provide benefits, Mitra said.
“Any exercise is better than no exercise at all,” he said, “and any exercise they love to do, they should do.”
Harris said she is proud of her weight-loss accomplishment. Fields said her self-esteem has completely changed for the better.
“I can do everything. There’s nothing I can’t do,” she said with her face glowing with happiness. “And when you feel good about yourself, you feel like helping others.”
Margaret Fisher can be reached at 252-559-1082 or Margaret.Fisher@Kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @MargaretFishr.
To attend the event:
What: Obesity and Heart Disease
Who: Dr. Shyamal K. Mitra
When: Noon-12:45 p.m., Friday
Where: Lenoir Memorial Hospital auditorium
Cost: Free and open to the public
Weight loss tips in a nutshell:
Minimize the amount of saturated fats in your diet
Minimize the sugars in your diet
Maximize the whole grain products
Exercise, at least walk (if at all possible)
Don’t ever give up on your weight loss plan
Source: Dr. Shyamal Mitra, Kinston Medical Specialists