Modern medicine now offers safe, effective tools to treat obesity—from life-saving bariatric surgery to powerful new medications. Yet most people with obesity can’t access these treatments because obesity isn’t widely recognized as a disease. In many countries, including the U.S. and U.K., access to treatment is granted only when another related condition, like hypertension or type 2 diabetes, is already present, even though there is ample evidence that obesity alone can cause serious harm.