Athens, Ga–
Athens Nurses Clinic is fighting obesity the hard way. They are telling their patients to lose the weight or they’re out. Reporter Hannah Patrick has details on the weight loss program the clinic is offering.
The key to this program is Body Mass index. The head of the program said that anyone with a Body mass index over 30 has to participate in this program or they won’t be able to continue to come to the clinic.
Cayla Miller helps run this clinic that sees over 6,000 patients who are homeless or have no health insurance. She has set up an 8 week program with exercise and nutrition components. Each class will educate them on nutrition and provide exercise. She’ll be teaching them cheap tricks like the nutrition of a soup can and even how to use it as a weight. Cayla Miller says,
“A lot of adapted exercises that they can adapt to their body types and lifestyles and their budgets as well. Cause we understand a lot of them can’t afford weights or a gym.
Foods like these tend to be on sale in grcery stores. They also tend to be high in sugar. But Cayla is going to the store this week to find healthy alternatives for the same cost. Her goal is to show the class you can still eat healthy for 25 to 30 dollars a week.
Athens has one of the highest poverty rates in Georgia. Low income is linked to obesity because of limied access to resources. Most people don’t know that even though they are poor over half of their patients are obese. A medical sociology professor Jessica Seberger says,
” Yeah it’s kind of confusing, you’d think that maybe they’d be underweight because they don’t have the resources to buy healthy foods or to eat as lavishly as someone in the higher class.
Obesity leads to high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and other chronic conditions. They have so many mismanaged cases that the clinic can no longer use their resources to help patients that aren’t willing to help themselves.
Cayla said,
“We need to give them the knowledge and the confidence to carry that out.”
They are hoping to have 25 to 30 participants per week. They must show progress of losing weight to continue to receive their care.
