Obesity
Obesity-related conditions include heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer. These are among the leading causes of preventable, premature death. In USA alone, the estimated annual medical cost of obesity was $147 billion in 2008. Medical costs for people, who had obesity, were $1,429 higher than medical costs for people with healthy weight.
Are you overweight or obese?
Body Mass Index is a person’s weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters. A high BMI can indicate high body fatness.
Body Mass Index
From | To | Weight |
---|---|---|
18.5 | Underweight | |
18.6 | 25 | Healthy |
26 | 30 | Overweight |
31 | 35 | Obese (I) |
36 | 40 | Obese (II) |
41 | Obese (III) |
For individuals, BMI is screening tool, but it does not diagnose body fatness or health. A trained health care provider should perform appropriate assessments to evaluate an individual’s health status and risks. If you have questions about your BMI, talk with your health care provider.
BMI does not measure body fat directly, but BMI is moderately correlated with more direct measures of body fat obtained from skinfold thickness measurements, bioelectrical impedance, underwater weighing, dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and other methods. Furthermore, BMI appears to be strongly correlated with various adverse health outcomes consistent with other more direct measures of body fatness.
Causes & Consequences
Obesity is a complex health issue resulting from a combination of causes and individual factors such as behavior and genetics. Behaviors can include physical activity, inactivity, dietary patterns, medication use, and other exposures. Additional contributing factors include the food and physical activity environment, education and skills, and food marketing and promotion.
Obesity is serious because it is associated with poorer mental health outcomes and reduced quality of life. Obesity is also associated with the leading causes of death in the United States and worldwide, including diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and some types of cancer.
Behavior
Healthy behaviors include regular physical activity and healthy eating. Balancing the number of calories consumed from foods and beverages with the number of calories the body uses for activity plays a role in preventing excess weight gain. The Physical Activity Guidelines recommends adults do at least 150 minutes a week of moderate intensity activity such as brisk walking. In addition, adults need to do activities that strengthen muscles at least 2 days a week.
A healthy diet pattern follows the Dietary Guidelines which emphasizes eating whole grains, fruits, vegetables, lean protein, low-fat & fat-free dairy products, and drinking water.
A pattern of healthy eating and regular physical activity is also important for long-term health benefits and prevention of chronic diseases such as ‘type 2’ diabetes and heart disease.
Community Environment
People and families may make decisions based on their environment or community. For example, a person may not walk or bike to the store or to work because of a lack of sidewalks or safe bike trails. Community, home, childcare, school, health care, and workplace settings can all influence daily behaviors. Therefore, it is important to create environments that make it easier to engage in physical activity and eat healthy foods.
Genetics
Do Genes Have a Role in Obesity?
Genetic changes in human populations occur too slowly to be responsible for the obesity epidemic. Nevertheless, how people respond to an environment that promotes physical inactivity and intake of high-calorie foods suggests that genes do play a role in developing obesity.
How Could Genes Influence Obesity?
Genes give the body instructions for responding to changes in its environment. Variants in several genes may contribute to obesity by increasing hunger and food intake.
Rarely, a clear pattern of inherited obesity within a family is caused by a specific variant of a single gene (monogenic obesity). Most obesity, however, probably results from complex interactions among multiple genes and environmental factors that remain poorly understood (multifactorial obesity).
What about Family History?
Health care practitioners routinely collect family health history to help identify people at high risk of obesity-related diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and some forms of cancer. Family health history reflects the effects of shared genetics and environment among close relatives. Families cannot change their genes, but they can encourage healthy eating habits and physical activity. Those changes can improve the health of family members—and improve the health history of the next generation.
Other Factors: Diseases and Drugs
Some illnesses may lead to obesity or weight gain. These may include Cushing’s disease, and polycystic ovary syndrome. Drugs such as steroids and some antidepressants may also cause weight gain. Research continues on the role of other factors in energy balance and weight gain such as chemical exposures and the role of the microbiome.
A health care provider can help you learn more about your health habits and history to identify whether behaviors, illnesses, medications, and/or psychological factors are contributing to weight gain or making weight loss hard.
Consequences of Obesity
Health Consequences
People who have obesity, compared to those with a healthy weight, are at increased risk for many serious diseases and health conditions, including the following:
- All-causes of death (mortality)
- High blood pressure (hypertension)
- High LDL cholesterol, low HDL cholesterol, or high levels of triglycerides (Dyslipidemia)
- Type 2 diabetes
- Coronary heart disease
- Stroke
- Gallbladder disease
- Osteoarthritis (a breakdown of cartilage and bone within a joint)
- Sleep apnea and breathing problems
- Many types of cancers external icon
- Low quality of life
- Mental illness such as clinical depression, anxiety, and other mental disorders
- Body pain and difficulty with physical functioning
Economic and Societal Consequences
Obesity and its associated health problems have a significant economic impact on the US health care system, including direct and indirect costs. Direct medical costs may include preventive, diagnostic, and treatment services. Indirect costs relate to sickness and death and include lost productivity. Productivity measures include employees being absent from work for obesity-related health reasons, decreased productivity while at work, and premature death and disability.
Content by Courtesy of– Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USA
https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/adult/causes.html