The Health Effects of Obesity

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Obesity is a complicated health problem that stems from a variety of factors, including behavior and genetics. Physical inactivity, food choices, pharmaceutical use, and other exposures are all examples of behaviors. Additional contributing factors include prenatal and early life influences, poor diets; overeating, frequency of eating, too much television watching, lack of sleep, and our food and physical activity environment. Obesity is dangerous since it’s linked to poor mental health and a lower quality of life. It is also associated with some of the most common causes of death, including diabetes, heart disease, stroke, osteoarthritis, asthma, and certain types of cancer.

Obesity is caused by an energy imbalance between calories taken and calories expended, resulting in an energy surplus and a positive energy balance, which leads to excess body weight. Obese people are more likely than healthy-weight people to develop a variety of significant diseases and health issues, including:

Mortality

According to some studies, the relation between BMI and waist circumference and mortality is U- or J-shaped, while the association between the waist-to-hip ratio and the waist-to-height ratio is more positive. Over 16 years, a BMI of more than 32 kg/m2 was linked to a twofold mortality rate among women. Obesity has become a global epidemic, with at least 2.8 million people dying each year as a result of being overweight or obese. It is estimated to cause 111,909 to 365,000 deaths in the United States per year, whereas obesity is responsible for 1 million (7.7%) deaths in Europe. Obesity reduces life expectancy by six to seven years on average, by two to four years for those with a BMI of 30–35 kg/m2, and by 10 years for those with a BMI of > 40 kg/m2.

Diabetes

When compared to normal weight, being overweight increases the chance of having type 2 diabetes by a factor of three, while being obese increases the risk by a factor of seven. Although not everyone who is overweight or obese has diabetes, over 80% of diabetics are overweight or obese. Even in the absence of other metabolic dysregulations such as insulin resistance, poor glycemic control, hypertension, or dyslipidemia, obesity increases the risk of diabetes.

Cardiovascular Diseases

Excess body weight is a known risk factor for heart disease and stroke, as well as its common precursors of dyslipidemia and hypertension. Recent research has consistently proven that being overweight increases the risk of heart disease and stroke, in addition to the effects of hypertension, dyslipidemia, and dysglycemia.

Cancer

Obesity was estimated to be responsible for 6% of all cancer diagnoses in 2007. Obesity has long been linked to an increased risk of esophageal, colon, pancreatic, postmenopausal breast, endometrial, and renal cancers, in addition to being a major risk factor for diabetes, which is a risk factor for most cancers. More recently, evidence has accumulated indicating being overweight or obese increases the risk of gallbladder, liver, ovarian, and advanced prostate cancer, as well as leukemia.

Mental Health

Obesity has been linked to both morphological and functional changes in the brain. Obese older persons, when compared to their normal-weight counterparts, show atrophy in the frontal lobes, anterior cingulate gyrus, hippocampus, and thalamus, according to many studies. Obesity has also been linked to a reduction in orbitofrontal cortex gray matter volume in children and adolescents (aged 9 years) as well as lower executive function performance in some areas. Obesity raises the chance of Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, and any sort of dementia by 35 percent, 33 percent, and 26 percent, respectively, in those who are overweight in their forties.

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