First Step to Fix Health Costs? Lose Weight!

Surgeon Shaun J. Melarvie, M.D., says the national debate on controlling health care costs is focusing too much on what the government and insurance industries can do and too little on what patients can do on their own. “Want to cut the cost of your own medical care?” said Dr. Melarvie. “Get healthy and stay healthy. We may have a national epidemic of obesity, but that doesn’t mean you have to stay fat if you don’t want to. I dropped from 300 five years ago to 220 today. If I can, you can.”

Dr. Melarvie said many intelligent people read and listen to the media and know they should eat right and exercise, but mental and emotional blocks stop them from taking action. As someone who has been there and done that, he developed a program for others that he presents in seminars. He has distilled the program into a new book, scheduled for January 2010 publication, “The Relativity Diet: A Diet Theory of Everything.” The book details his personal, lifelong struggle with weight, explains the evidence-based science of body weight—with telling lessons learned from slicing through the bellies of patients—and explores the emotional side of deciding to start and stick with diet and exercise.