Weight loss surgery is hard to get funded in the United Kingdom, surgeons say, even if you qualify by being obese. Read the full story

Watch this week’s WLS News to see some encouraging news for people who think they’re too depressed to lose weight. And learn more about data showing that weight loss surgery is helping people live years longer. Also, though obesity can sometimes be genetic, studies are showing that breastfeeding can help your baby maintain a healthy weight later in life. Get the details on these stories and more in this week’s newscast. Read the full story

Weight loss surgery may be one way to make it happen, but a proposed initiative in England may pay cash to people who drop some pounds. Read the full story

Catch this week’s WLS News to learn why some people are getting paid to lose weight. Plus, could going under anesthesia be riskier for the overweight? And there’s good news about the obesity rate in America, but experts warn the effects may be temporary. Can you really trust the calorie count on the fast food menus? That story, as well as a new connection between obesity and a deadly form of kidney cancer on this episode.  Click the video player below to view these stories and more. Read the full story

Weight Problem Plagues UK’s National Health Service Staff

There’s a problem with more than half the people who work for the National Health Service in the United Kingdom: a weight problem. Channel Four in the United Kingdom recently reported that among the 1.2 million adults who work for the service as midwives, nurses and health visitors, an estimated 700,000 of them are either obese or overweight. And orders have been sent for these folks to shape up!

A report from the United Kingdom Department of Health confirms this number and includes a plan to develop several programs in the next year that will help bring the staff down to more slender levels. The report emphasized the need for these employees to set a good example while counseling other people about their health.

Underscoring the point, the report cited the recent success that the department had after encouraging many of its doctors to quit smoking.

The examples set by the medical staff are crucial, since the National Health Service, which is publicly funded, provides more than 80 percent of all medical services in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This includes long-term, in-patient, prenatal, primary and emergency care for people of all ages. Its staff deals with up to a million patients every 36 hours.