Charles Vega, MD: Nutrtion, Guidelines Important for Obesity Care

Obesity care should be changed when necessary research calls for it.

For example, guidelines should continue to evolve to reflect certain thoughts and knowledge.

These guidelines serve as a template for many doctors who are treating patients with obesity.

In an interview with HCPLive®, Charles P. Vega, MD, Clinical Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at UC Irvine,explained how new guidelines and updated nutritional plans can be especially beneficial when treating patients with obesity and diabetes.

However, current guidelines are very focused on what is best for the patients.

“I think the ADA (American Diabetes Association) are very patient-centered in that they take a look at real-world scenarios,” Vega said. “They give scripts and algorithms that focus on the patients we see every day.”

For nutritional edition, Vega said they are critical but a mistake doctors often make is that they are too exact and for many patients who have not had much experience in this it can be a path to failure.

Vega suggests to otherwise do an inventory of the patient’s diet and to make 1 or 2 changes over the next few weeks.

Vega presented during Pri-Med West 2022 in Anaheim a session called
Weight Matters: Refocusing Diabetes Care in People with Obesity with Jennifer Green, MD, of Duke University.