Annie’s Mailbox: Reader changed life with weight loss

Dear Annie: I would like to commend “Newbury Park, Calif.,” on his success in turning his life around by taking responsibility for his health and making the necessary changes for his weight loss.

Having been an operating room nurse since 1979, I have seen the results of our obesity epidemic. The health problems caused by obesity and smoking are debilitating to the person and extremely sad to see. Kidney disease, vascular insufficiency and cardiac disease are serious health problems that lead to myriad treatments with varying degrees of success.

The best thing a person can do for themselves is exactly what Newbury Park and his wife did, which is take responsibility for their own health. I can only imagine how difficult it was for them to lose so much weight and change their eating and exercise habits, but the results speak for themselves.

If more people were willing to take charge of their own health and help reverse the large amount of money spent dealing with these preventable diseases, we might help bridge the regrettable divide in our country caused in part by the issue of health care. – RN, CNOR, CRNFA