Confronting South Africa’s obesity crisis: Surgery or medication as the way forward?

Abstract

In the writings of Claudius Aelian (170-235 A.D.), the statesman Dionysius concealed his big frame from his followers by hiding in a tower from which only his head emerged.¹ Because he suffered from “difficult breathing” his doctors inserted long thin needles into him while in deep sleep, pushed until sensate flesh was reached. We do not know what happened to Dionysius, but the stigma surrounding obesity and the acknowledgement of its severe consequences is readily evident in ancient Greek writing.