Obesity Prevention Screening Fund

Hi Everyone,

Thank you for taking a moment to read this and consider supporting me on this important mission. To God’s glory, I am a McGill-trained Nurse, a Graduate of Harvard's Blackburn Course in Obesity Medicine, and the Founder of Unraveling Obesity Inc. I’m passionate about helping others with weight management and lifestyle modification so that they can improve their metabolic health. In helping my patients, I created a thorough initial intake form to paint a clinical picture and better understand the cause(s) of weight gain. This form, which included medical history, medication, weight history, a nutrition evaluation, eating habits, physical activities, and a psychological & sleep evaluation, was 33 pages long. Although it allowed me to understand a patient’s unique story, health potential (strengths, motivation, resources), and challenges and helped them in choosing health goals, it was time-consuming. In 2020, I thought of creating an online comprehensive obesity screening tool that is secure, fast, reliable, and automated to assist with the initial assessment. My hope was to create something different, based on science and grounded in truth, for the best interest of patients in helping them improve their metabolic health and quality of life, efficient in not causing “survey fatigue”, useful for healthcare professionals in collecting relevant data while saving time, and also can be accessible to anyone, anytime, anywhere. I did this with my credible team even when there was no funding for it. To this point, all expenses have been out of pocket. It is for this reason that I decided to start a GoFundMe to request support from our community. Your contribution will help us improve our obesity screening tools and get them to many physicians’ offices. This, in turn, will aid them in treating obesity or making the referral to a certified obesity medicine specialist for their high-risk patients.

We are in a global obesity epidemic causing the current public health crisis.

Many kids, teens, and adults worldwide need professional help and guidance!

Unraveling Obesity's screening tool is a way to triage patients efficiently, thoroughly, accurately, and safely in this public health emergency. (Immediate= High risk of obesity, Urgent= Moderate risk of obesity, Non-Urgent= Low risk of obesity). My mission at Unraveling Obesity is that our screening tools will (1) improve the metabolic health of kids, teens, and adults; (2) help raise awareness about the importance of recognizing obesity as a complex and multifactorial medical condition; and (3) be a starting point for the provider opening up that delicate conversation about weight. The Obesity Medicine Association (OMA) defines obesity as a “chronic, relapsing, multi-factorial, neurobehavioral disease, wherein an increase in body fat promotes adipose tissue dysfunction and abnormal fat mass physical forces, resulting in adverse metabolic, biomechanical, and psychosocial health consequences.” This medical condition affects many people regardless of age. Unfortunately, it is often misunderstood, unrecognized, unmanaged, overlooked, and underestimated. Like other medical conditions, obesity is staged and can progress and affect one’s quality of life if left untreated. For example, we don’t leave a patient with a blood pressure of 200/110 without any monitoring or treatment.

Obesity, like other medical conditions, needs to have a routine preventive screening that is more than one’s BMI or number on the scale. Also, obesity management is not about “eat less and move more.” Many primary care physicians or providers do not have the time or the advanced training in Obesity Medicine to help their patients deal with obesity. Some do not feel comfortable starting the conversation as they would about all the other diagnoses. However, in reality, if physicians/providers just addressed obesity, they would not need to spend time on all the other medical conditions that are associated with it, such as heart disease and stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, some cancers, gallbladder disease (and gallstones), osteoarthritis, gout, sleep apnea, etc. Obesity screening is important for disease prevention and healthy living because it leads to early diagnosis and prompt treatment, reduces obesity-related comorbidities, and improves one’s metabolic health and quality of life. Will you join me in this important mission? Your donation of any amount will be greatly appreciated and will make a difference in the lives of many kids, teens, and adults dealing with obesity. Sharing this fundraiser will also be of great help. A healthier tomorrow starts today. So, let’s do this together!

Unraveling Obesity