Health Risks Associated with Obesity
Health Risks Associated with Obesity
Obesity is associated with about 112,000 deaths each year in the United States. In fact, it is more harmful to your health than alcohol abuse. The good news is that by losing weight, you can improve, prevent, or lower your risk for these weight-related health conditions.
Reduced Life Expectancy
Obesity is correlated with a higher possibility of mortality due to complications associated with it. Several studies have shown that the relative risk of dying is increased at a BMI of 35 or higher. At a BMI of 40, the risk is nearly three times that of people who have normal weight. This risk increases very steeply from a BMI of 40 and upward.
Physical Limitations and Social Isolation
Although it’s unfortunate, most obese individuals are unable to perform physical and social tasks that are routinely performed by those with a healthy weight and BMI. Physical activity of any sort can be quite difficult due to shortness of breath or lethargy making daily tasks such as housework or standard employment challenging.
Most morbidly obese people cannot buy clothes easily. They have difficulty getting in and out of cars. Flexibility is reduced and can lead to tasks such as clipping toenails becoming a shared responsibility between the obese individual and a loved one. Personal hygiene may even pose a problem.
Airplane travel also can lead to social embarrassment. Just the thought of these issues can make anyone with a high BMI feel socially isolated, leading to depression and feelings of hopelessness, especially if they have tried dieting, medications, and exercise.
As a result of their appearance, obese people suffer social bias, prejudice and discrimination. Society stigmatizes obesity. Obesity is probably the only area left where discrimination is still considered acceptable. Unfavorable remarks about someone because of their sex, race or disability is not acceptable in our society today, and rightly so. Unfortunately, unfavorable remarks about someone’s weight are still considered acceptable by many in the United States today.
Co-Morbidities: Diseases & Conditions Correlated with Obesity
The centers for disease control in Atlanta, Georgia, estimated that there were between 111,000 and 380,000 deaths from obesity-related diseases in the United States in the year 2000. Even those under the age of 18 are affected by obesity. There is a long list of illnesses that are either caused by obesity or are made worse by obesity. These include, but are not limited to the following:
- Diabetes
- Heart Disease
- Cancer (Breast, Gastrointestinal, Prostate and Endometrial)
- High Blood Pressure (Hypertension)
- Asthma
- Sleep Apnea (Obstructive)
- Gallstones
- Infertility
- Depression
- Low Back Pain • Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome
- Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH)
- Cardiomyopathy
- Hypoventilation Syndromes
- Urinary Incontinence
- Gastro-Esophageal Reflux Disease
- Arthritis (Weight Bearing)
- Thromboembolism
- Immobility
- Ulcers (Venous/Stasis)
