In December of 2001, the U.S.Office of the Surgeon General (OSG)
published a report named "The Surgeon General's Call to action to
Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity". This document outlined
the fact that Obesity
has grown to an 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
and treatment
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.
The Health risks
that might be caused
by obesity
are :
