NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – US Rep. Troy Carter of New Orleans convened a roundtable discussion Tuesday (Oct. 31) at Xavier University focusing on obesity and mental health concerns.

Carter assembled a group of healthcare professionals, patient advocates, community leaders and others to discuss needs and solutions.

“To create a comfortable place to say, not, ‘Go lose some weight, go exercise, put the Twinkle down.’ Let’s talk about how can we help,” Carter said.

Fox 8 health educator Dr. Eric Griggs was among the participants.

“We’re convened in a room, but we need to make sure we take this back out, so we don’t perpetuate the same issues of stigma with mental health and obesity,” Griggs said. “It’s always talked about in quiet rooms.”

According to “The Psychological Burden of Obesity,” an article published by the National Institutes of Health, “Numerous studies have demonstrated a positive association between obesity and various mental health issues, including depression, eating disorders, anxiety and substance abuse.”

Griggs said he agrees there is a connection between obesity and mental health.

“There’s absolutely a correlation,” Griggs said. “Because every time you look in the mirror, not only is there shaming by the community, we shame ourselves based on these ideologies, these ideal pictures that people put on social media. … We shame ourselves every day.”

Dr. Catherine Hudson, an LSU Health physician and director of obesity medicine at UMC New Orleans’ Weight Loss and Bariatric Surgery Clinic, also was at the table.

“We need more collaboration within our community,” Hudson said. “We need to figure out how to empower our patients to advocate for themselves as we move forward with creating programs to treat both obesity and mental health and legislative agendas, moving forward with legislation on treating obesity as a disease, which it is.”

Hudson also pointed to obstacles to treating obese patients.

“First, there are barriers within the patient themselves,” she said. “They believe that this is something they’ve done to themselves and they don’t deserve treatments sometimes.”

She said there are other financial barriers as well.

“Right now, if I see a patient in my obesity clinic, I will not get reimbursed if I try to bill for the diagnosis of obesity, despite obesity having been a disease, per the AMA, for at least 10 years since 2013,” Hudson said. “So, if I can’t use the tools that we know work to treat obesity, it’s very hard for me to help these patients.”

Ava Zebrick of the Obesity Action Coalition said access to care for obesity needs to be expanded.

“I’ve been affected by obesity since early childhood,” she said. “And, in my mid-20s, I found myself at that time weighing 300 pounds and I had a myriad of comorbidities with obesity. I had hypertension, high cholesterol, pre-diabetes. I did suffer with pretty severe depression.

“I did experience a lot of shame and thought that I was to blame for the state that I was in and the health issues that I had. And if I did understand that obesity was a disease, and could have overcome that shame, then I would reach out and get the treatment that I needed.”

Carter said Congress has passed legislation to help the public — such as the new 988 call center for 24/7 emergency mental health resources — but the work isn’t finished.

“This discussion was to bring professionals together to talk the issues of obesity, the core reasons behind them, mental health, the core reasons behind them, and to come up with solutions,” Carter said.

Dr. Hudson also was asked about Ozempic, a prescription diabetes medication some people take for weight loss.

“I think that anti-obesity medications like Wegovy or Saxenda, which are the branded versions of those medicines like Ozempic and Victoza for diabetes, are game-changers,” Hudson said. “We’ve never been this good at treating obesity with medications before these drugs. They are absolutely indicated for the treatment of obesity as a disease. They are not meant to be used for vanity weight loss.”

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