The danger of developing serious
health issues is increased when body weight is consistently above the healthy
range. Overweight and obese people have increased risks for cardiovascular
disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, and mental health issues. Some of these
health issues are linked to obesity, although decreasing weight can help.
The
Effect of Body Fat on Your Health
The risk of
over 50 different diseases and conditions increases dramatically if you are
overweight. Heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and some malignancies account for
a disproportionate share of U.S. deaths, but these categories also include less
prevalent illnesses like gout and gallstones. Although the negative effects of
depression, a prevalent mental health problem, on one's daily life are powerful
enough to warrant attention, the correlation between obesity and depression is
much stronger.
Harvard researchers
found alarming evidence on the correlation between obesity and health after
analyzing information from more than 50,000 male participants in the Health
Professionals Follow-up Study and more than 120,000 female participants in the
Nurses' Health Study.
A variety of
demographic information, including height, weight, nutrition, and medical
history, was submitted by the participants. Over a period of more than a
decade, the subjects of this study were closely monitored by the researchers.
Disease rates were recorded and correlated with subjects' body mass indices
(BMIs), which are estimates of relative body fat based on height and weight.
The risk of
diabetes was increased 20-fold, and the risks of high blood pressure, heart
disease, stroke, and gallstones were also greatly enhanced by being overweight.
When it comes to being overweight or obese, a greater body mass index is
directly correlated with a higher chance of developing a variety of diseases.
Unfortunately,
there are a wide variety of health issues that can be brought on by being
overweight.
Obesity
and mental health
Is it more
likely that someone will become depressed if they are overweight, or vice
versa? After looking at 15 studies, researchers concluded that any outcome is
plausible. Compared to those of normal weight, those who are obese had a 55%
higher risk of getting depression over time, according to research published in
2010 in the Archives of General Psychiatry. Some of the possible causes of the
link between obesity and depression are as follows.
· Stress seems to play a role in the development of both disorders,
leading to chemical and functional changes in the brain.
· It's also possible that there are psychological underpinnings. Thin is
beautiful in our society, and being overweight can reduce self-esteem, a known
depression trigger.
· Obesity and its associated physical discomfort are well-known to
contribute to the development of depression, as are disordered eating behaviors
and eating disorders.
Additionally,
the study discovered that those who suffer from depression are 58% more likely
to gain weight. Some of the ways in which depression might bring about weight
gain are as follows:
· One idea suggests that elevated amounts of the
stress hormone cortisol (typical of depressed individuals) may modify
components in fat cells that make fat accumulation, particularly in the belly,
more likely.
· Some antidepressant drugs induce weight gain, and people with depression are already more likely to gain weight because they are less likely to eat well and exercise consistently.
Overweight,
cardiovascular risk, and stroke
High blood
pressure, dangerous levels of cholesterol and other blood lipids, and other
symptoms of obesity sometimes occur simultaneously. Both can increase the risk
of cardiovascular disease and stroke, two conditions that might occur
simultaneously.
Overweight
people are almost six times more likely to develop hypertension than their
leaner counterparts. The American Heart Association reports that an increase of
3 mm Hg in systolic blood pressure and 2.3 mm Hg in diastolic blood pressure
due to an excess of 22 pounds is associated with a 24% increase in the risk of
stroke.
One
meta-analysis published in 2007 in the Archives of Internal Medicine combined
data from 21 studies including over 300,000. These individuals were all
overweight or obese. Findings from the study showed that: • • being overweight
increased the risk of heart disease by 32%
The risk was
81% higher in those who were obese.
Even modest
amounts of excess weight can increase the odds of heart disease independent of
those well-known risks, the authors concluded, and these effects may account
for as much as 45% of the increased risk of heart disease in the overweight
population.
People who
are overweight are 22 percent more likely to suffer a stroke than people of
normal weight. A 2010 review of 25 research involving over 2 million
participants found that those with obesity had a 64 percent greater risk of
stroke.
Extra
weight and diabetes
The
association between diabetes and being overweight is so strong that doctors
have started using the term "diabesity" to characterize the
condition. Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of the disease, and over 90%
of those who have it are also overweight or obese. Diabetic cases increased
rapidly, by about 65%, between 1996 and 2006.
One of the
hallmarks of diabetes, elevated blood sugar, is also a characteristic of
metabolic syndrome. Diabetic complications, such as kidney failure, blindness,
and amputations of the foot or limb, can be fatal if the disease is not treated
or is poorly controlled. In the United States, diabetes ranks eighth in terms
of mortality rates.
What's
your metabolic syndrome status?
The risk of
developing cardiovascular disease, stroke, and diabetes is heightened not only
by the presence of metabolic syndrome but also by the co-occurrence of other
illnesses. Belly fat is a hallmark symptom. If you're dealing with that issue,
chances are good that you also have those other traits.
If three out
of the following five conditions apply to you, you may have metabolic syndrome.
· Wide
abdominal area. When the female waist circumference is greater than 35 inches
or the male waist circumference is greater than 40 inches.
· Triglyceride
levels are too high. Increased triglyceride levels in the blood, measured while
the patient is fasting, of 150 mg/dL or above.
· Weak
High-Density Lipoprotein Levels. The "good" high density lipoprotein
cholesterol level is below 40 mg/dL in men and below 50 mg/dL in women.
· An issue
with hypertension. A reading of 130 mm Hg or higher on the systolic (top) or 85
mm Hg or more on the diastolic (bottom) blood pressure monitor.
· Caused by
elevated blood sugar levels, Diabetes is defined as having blood sugar levels
of 100 mg/dL or above while fasting.
(It is
important to remember that if you are receiving treatment for one of the
following conditions, you are still regarded to have that condition even if
your test results are normal.)
Cancer
and Obesity
Experts are
divided on whether or not obesity is the second leading cause of cancer deaths,
after only cigarette smoking.
Almost the
course of 16 years, the American Cancer Society tracked over 900,000 patients
for a research that appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine. The
results of the study demonstrated that being overweight increases the risk of
developing several malignancies. the following are some of the results:
Overweight
and obesity may be responsible for 14% of male and 20% of female cancer
fatalities in the over-50 age group. Higher body mass indexes were associated
with an increased risk of mortality from esophageal, colon and rectum, liver,
gallbladder, pancreatic, and kidney cancers in both sexes.
Women with
higher BMIs had a higher risk of dying from breast, uterine, cervix, or ovarian
cancer, while men with a higher BMI had a higher risk of dying from stomach or
prostate cancer.
The same
conclusions were drawn in a review paper published in The Lancet in 2008. Those
who are extremely overweight may contribute to the problem because they are
less likely to have cancer screenings like Pap smears and mammograms.
A study
published in The International Journal of Obesity found that women who are
overweight were more likely to put off undergoing a pelvic exam, perhaps due to
previous unfavorable interactions with medical professionals. If a man is
extremely overweight, and especially if he stores fat in his hips, buttocks, or
thighs, he may have trouble physically performing a screening test like a
prostate check.
Relationship
between body mass index and longevity
Moving about
can be difficult if you're overweight or fat. Those who are overweight find it
more difficult to walk a quarter of a mile, lift 10 pounds, and get up from an
armless chair than their leaner counterparts. Experts suggest that the
increased prevalence of obesity throughout a longer lifespan may be to blame
for the larger burden of these issues.
And because
obesity contributes to numerous serious health problems, being overweight or
obese might shorten your life expectancy. Researchers at Harvard University
tracked almost half a million adults aged 50 to 71 for ten years and discovered
that those who were overweight at midlife had a 20% to 40% higher risk of
dying. Death rates were two to three times higher among the obese.
The risk of
death was found to be 44% higher for those who were mildly obese and 250%
higher for those with a BMI of 40 to 50 in a 2010 study published in the same
journal that pooled findings from 19 studies that followed nearly 1.5 million
white adults 19 to 84 years old for a similar time interval.
Reduce
your weight and improve your health.
Getting rid
of extra pounds can improve your health and well-being in many ways, including
how you look and feel. The notion that you can improve your health without
making drastic lifestyle changes is quite promising. There are several positive
health effects associated with losing as little as 5-10% of your body weight.
High blood pressure sufferers who lost just 10 pounds over the course of six
months saw a 2.8 mm Hg drop in their systolic reading and a 2.5 mm Hg drop in
their diastolic reading. In terms of lowering blood pressure, these effects
were comparable to those of various blood pressure drugs.
Many people
with high blood pressure can stop taking their blood pressure medication after
losing weight, as long as they are able to keep it off. People at risk for type
2 diabetes who lost just 7% of their body weight and exercised for about 30
minutes per day reduced their risk of diabetes by nearly 60%, according to a
study.