Obesity as an
Epidemic
In December of 2001, the U.S Office of the Surgeon
General
published a report called "The Surgeon General's Call to
action to Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity".
This document outlined the fact that Obesity has grown
to Epidemic proportions in U.S.
According the
last statistics :
-
An estimated, in 1997,
almost 97 million adults in the U.S. was
overweight or obese.
-
An estimated 300,00 people die from
obesity or overweight related illnesses each year.
-
In the year 2000,
about 400,000 Americans died from obesity-related
illnesses each year caused by poor diet and
physical inactivity. This was the largest increase
among all actual causes of death!
-
In the year 2000 alone, the total
healthcare costs attributable to obesity were
estimated to be $117 billion and a number is
constantly growing.
-
According the Surgeon General,
overweight and obesity may soon cause as much
preventable disease and death as cigarette smoking.
Most people think that obesity goes
no deeper than a less than fashionable look, but they
are so wrong. Overweight people aside the not very
esthetic look usually suffer from low self esteem, they
are shay, many times are embarrassed and their self
confidence is in lowest level too. It's hard to be
overweight: they hardly do go out, have permanent
problem to fit clothing, environment find them as
funny, they have trouble to find quality job, they have
problem to find a friends,
girlfriend... In short their social life is
not so attractive...
Their social problems are
nothing compared to their health problems. Obesity
- too much fat on body - puts a strain on
joints and bones that have to sustain more weight than
before, which leads to arthritis in the long run. They
get tired faster because of weight, it make them
less active, which, in turn, means additional
pounds is put on.
The lack of
activity causes to increasing of cholesterol
levels which impair the proper functioning of your
heart and blood vessels. This results increased
blood pressure which in turn may cause to stroke
and other blood and heart conditions. Excess weight also
leads to apnea, the cessation of breathing during sleep.
However, obesity can be cured with patience and
effort. It become to disease and spreads
over the land.
How
to Recognize Obesity? Obesity by definition is
a BMI - body mass index of 30 or above. The body
mass index is a measure of a person’s weight scaled
according to height. It was developed by Belgian
scientist Adolphe Quetelet in 1840.
Physicians use
BMI to show the amount of fat stored on the body and the
higher it is, the worst will be exposure
to certain diseases. Physicians also warn that having a
lot of fat stored around your waist increases the risk
of developing diseases.
Going beyond
size 35 in women and size 40 in men si
gnificantly increases risk for developing many
obesity related illnesses.
One of the
causes of obesity may be genetics. It can be inherited
by family members if there is an obesity history in
family.
Wrong food is
the second main cause of obesity. It doesn't matter how
tempting burger looks, it has too much fat. One burger
probably never causes to your stomach feel full but it
will give to your body more calories than your body
needs.
Many times
people try various kinds of diets and even succeed to
loss some pounds but without changing eating habits and
life style they have no chance to succeed for long term
- meaning is that weight lost turns into weight
regained.
A successful
diet means adjusting your lifestyle to your needs,
especially by making time for more exercising.
Health risks
that might be caused by obesity are :
Heart attack
As an excess weight puts a strain on a
heart. Even if there are not other risk factors,
heart disease still could be developed.
Heart attack is most visible sign for
heart disease. Known fact is that cardiovascular disease
is the leading cause of death in U.S. today.
Stroke
Because of the same reason above,
extra weight puts a strain on circulatory system,
increasing risk for stroke. Stroke can result in lamb
weakness, paralysis of one side of the body, difficulty
speaking and processing language and even death.
Type 2 diabetes
Type 2 diabetes may be the
chronic health condition most closely linked to
being overweight. It can lead to serious health
problems including heart disease, blindness or kidney failure.
It's the 17'Th leading cause of
death in United States.
Hypertension ( Height
blood pressure )
Overweight increases the risk of high
blood pressure too. If left untreated, hypertension can
cause heart attack, stroke and kidney failure.
Other health
risks
Obesity
substantially increases the risk of developing many
other serious chronicle
conditions:
Recent studies have shown that some
overweight/obese patients have Metabolic Syndrome.
Patients with Metabolic syndrome are at a significantly
increased risk for heart attack, stroke and diabetes.
Higher a body weight, higher the risk
of premature death from all those causes.
