Obesity and its Impact on Health

Obesity’s Silent Threat: Unmasking the Health Risks of Excess Body Fat

According to Johns Hopkins, the U.S., “obesity is a chronic disease” that can have severe consequences on human health. Extra body fat contributes to making a person obese. The health issues associated with obesity include type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease, high blood pressure, and sleep apnea, to name a few.

Obesity in the United States

Public health experts consider obesity an epidemic in the U.S., as around one-third of the US adult population is believed to be obese. The National Health and Nutrition Examination survey found that older adults aged 60 and above are more prone to be obese than younger adults. Even more alarming is that nearly 20% of U.S. children are obese. According to National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NIH), “nearly 3 in 4 adults age 20 or older in the United States have either overweight or obesity. Nearly 1 in 5 children and teens ages 2 to 19 years have obesity”. NIH maintains that being overweight and obese can lead to serious health issues for people of all ages.

WHO Findings

According to World Health Organization (WHO), each year, over 4 million people die as a result of being overweight or obese. in 2017 according to the global burden of disease. WHO reveals that “from 1975 to 2016, the prevalence of overweight or obese children and adolescents aged 5–19 years increased more than four-fold from 4% to 18% globally”.

How Obesity is Determined

Obesity and body weight is differently conceived on a scale that determines body mass index (BMI).

BIM is calculated based on body weight about a person’s height. It is, in fact, BIM that is used to assess the risk associated with obesity-related health issues. Sometimes, however, BIM can be misleading. For example, a BIM reading of a muscular person may indicate that they are overweight. However, they may not necessarily be heavy due to their fat tissues. Instead, their weight may be due to their muscle tissue. A person with higher BIM and greater muscle mass will not be obese.

Obesity among men and women

There is a different pattern of weight gain among men and women. Usually, there is no change in weight among men after age 50. Weight decreases when they are in the age group of 60 and 70.

On the other hand, women tend to gain weight until the age of 60; after crossing 60, the weight starts decreasing.

Another obesity measuring method involves measuring the amount of fat on the waist compared to fat deposits on the hips and buttocks. Stomach fat can cause several health problems, such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, etc.

Causes of Obesity

There is not much known as to what contributes to obesity. But what is known is that if the consumption of food intake in terms of calories exceeds its use as energy, it results in gaining weight. However, this is not the only contributing factor to obesity. Other factors associated with obesity include metabolism, genes, and lifestyle. Besides that, some medicines, diseases, and other disorders can also contribute to gaining weight.

Impact of Obesity on Health

According to Johns Hopkins of the U.S., “obesity-related conditions cost more than $100 billion every year and cause premature deaths”. Obesity has been found to result in the following health problems:

Type 2 Diabetes – Obesity is a significant factor in developing type 2 diabetes. With obesity, the body produces insulin resistance, the blood sugar-regulating hormone, which causes a rise in blood sugar levels.

Joint Problems – Excessive body weight causes pressure on the knees and hips and contributes to joint pain and damage.

Heart Disease – Obese people are prone to coronary heart disease as the accumulation of fatty deposits in arteries restricts blood supply to the heart. Inadequate blood flow due to narrowed arteries can contribute to heart attack or chest pain (angina).

Blood clotting among obese people is another problem. Blood clotting in narrowed arteries causes a stroke if a clot reaches to brain.

High Blood Pressure – Among obese people, more blood is required to reach fat tissue, narrowing blood vessels. This creates more pressure on the heart to pump more blood to overcome resistance from the blood vessels. This can, eventually, result in a heart attack. Greater blood circulation and blood vessel resistance also create more pressure on the artery walls. This heightened pressure on the artery walls results in increased blood pressure.

Respiratory Problems – Obese people are also likely to develop respiratory problems like sleep apnea. In sleep apnea, breathing stops abruptly during sleep, which deprives people of uninterrupted sleep. Excessive weight on the chest wall among obese people contributes to squeezing the lungs and consequently restricts normal breathing. There is also a correlation between high blood pressure and sleep apnea.

Other Probabilities

Risk of Cancer – According to the American Cancer Society, obesity increases the risk of different cancers. Overweight men are susceptible to prostate cancer, while obese women are likely to develop breast cancer. The prevalence of colorectal cancer is common in men as well as women.

Depression – Overweight and obese people are also susceptible to depression.

References:

National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Obesity. (https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/overweight-and-obesity). Accessed August 4, 2022

Mayo Clinic. Obesity. (https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/obesity/symptoms-causes/syc-20375742) Accessed August 3, 2022

World Health Organization. Obesity. (https://www.who.int/health-topics/obesity#tab=tab_1) Accessed August 1, 2022