Tag: overweight

What Are the Health Risks of Overweight and Obesity?

Overweight-woman-007Being overweight or obese isn’t a cosmetic problem. These conditions greatly raise your risk for other health problems.

Overweight and Obesity-Related Health Problems in Adults:

  • Coronary Heart Disease
  • High Blood Pressure
  • Stroke
  • Type 2 Diabetes
  • Abnormal Blood Fats
  • Metabolic Syndrome
  • Cancer
  • Osteoarthritis
  • Sleep Apnea
  • Obesity Hypoventilation Syndrome
  • Reproductive Problems
  • Obesity can cause menstrual issues and infertility in women.
  • Gallstones

via What Are the Health Risks of Overweight and Obesity? – NHLBI, NIH.

How is kidney disease linked to overweight?

Human-kidney-adjusted-27543047What is kidney disease?

Your kidneys are two bean-shaped organs that filter blood, removing extra water and waste products, which become urine. Your kidneys also help control blood pressure so that your body can stay healthy.

Kidney disease means that the kidneys are damaged and can’t filter blood like they should. This damage can cause wastes to build up in the body. It can also cause other problems that can harm your health.

How is kidney disease linked to overweight?

Obesity increases the risk of diabetes and high blood pressure, the most common causes of chronic kidney disease. Recent studies suggest that even in the absence of these risks, obesity itself may promote chronic kidney disease and quicken its progress.

How can weight loss help?

If you are in the early stages of chronic kidney disease, losing weight may slow the disease and keep your kidneys healthier longer. You should also choose foods with less salt (sodium), keep your blood pressure under control, and keep your blood glucose in the target range.

via WIN – Do You Know Some of the Health Risks of Being Overweight?.

How can I tell if I weigh to much?

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How can you tell if your weight could increase your chances of developing health problems? Knowing two numbers may help you understand your risk: your body mass index (BMI) score and your waist size in inches.

Body Mass Index

The BMI is one way to tell whether you are at a normal weight, are overweight, or have obesity. It measures your weight in relation to your height and provides a score to help place you in a category:

  • normal weight: BMI of 18.5 to 24.9
  • overweight: BMI of 25 to 29.9
  • obesity: BMI of 30 or higher

Waist Size

Another important number to know is your waist size in inches. Having too much fat around your waist may increase health risks even more than having fat in other parts of your body.

Women with a waist size of more than 35 inches and men with a waist size of more than 40 inches may have higher chances of developing diseases related to obesity.

via WIN – Do You Know Some of the Health Risks of Being Overweight?.

What are the health consequences of overweight and obesity for adults?

Body-Mass-Index-Calculator-2Body Mass Index (BMI) is a number calculated from a person’s weight and height. BMI is a fairly reliable indicator of body fatness for most people.

The BMI ranges are based on the relationship between body weight and disease and death. Overweight and obese individuals are at increased risk for many diseases and health conditions, including the following:

  • Hypertension
  • Dyslipidemia (for example, high LDL cholesterol, low HDL cholesterol, or high levels of triglycerides)
  • Type 2 diabetes
  • Coronary heart disease
  • Stroke
  • Gallbladder disease
  • Osteoarthritis
  • Sleep apnea and respiratory problems
  • Some cancers (endometrial, breast, and colon)

via Healthy Weight: Assessing Your Weight: BMI: About Adult BMI | DNPAO | CDC.

Health Consequences of Overweight and Obesity

Research has shown that as weight increases to reach the levels referred to as “overweight” and “obesity,”* the risks for the following conditions also increases:

  • Coronary heart disease
  • Type 2 diabetes
  • Cancers (endometrial, breast, and colon)
  • Hypertension (high blood pressure)
  • Dyslipidemia (for example, high total cholesterol or high levels of triglycerides)
  • Stroke
  • Liver and Gallbladder disease
  • Sleep apnea and respiratory problems
  • Osteoarthritis (a degeneration of cartilage and its underlying bone within a joint)
  • Gynecological problems (abnormal menses, infertility)

*Overweight is defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 25 or higher; obesity is defined as a BMI of 30 or higher. For more, see Defining Obesity.

via Obesity and Overweight for Professionals: Adult: Causes – DNPAO – CDC.

The Medical Cost of Obesity

Study Estimates Medical Cost of Obesity May Be As High as $147 Billion Annually

The health cost of obesity in the United States is as high as $147 billion annually, based on a new study from RTI and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study which appears online today in the journal Health Affairs, was released at CDC’s Weight of the Nation conference in Washington, DC.

The proportion of all annual medical costs that are due to obesity increased from 6.5 percent in 1998 to 9.1 percent in 2006, the study said. This total includes payment by Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers, and includes prescription drug spending. Overall, persons who are obese spent $1,429 (42 percent) more for medical care in 2006 than did normal weight people. These estimates were compiled using national data that compare medical expenses for normal weight and obese persons.

via CDC Newsroom Press Release July 27, 2009.

Liquid Candy: How Sugary Drinks Are Harming America’s Health

More than two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese and the increased consumption of sugary drinks is a big part of why this is happening.

Americans consume gargantuan quantities of carbonated soft drinks and suffer untoward health consequences. Companies annually produce enough soda pop to provide 557 12-ounce cans—52.4 gallons—to every man, woman, and child.

Carbonated soft drinks are the single biggest source of calories in the American diet, providing about 7 percent of calories; adding in noncarbonated drinks brings the figure to 9 percent. Teenagers get 13 percent of their calories from carbonated and noncarbonated soft drinks.

Soft drinks provide large amounts of sugars (mostly high-fructose corn syrup) to many individuals’ diets. Soda pop provides the average 12 to 19-year-old boy with about 15 teaspoons of refined sugars a day and the average girl with about 10 teaspoons a day. Those amounts roughly equal the government’s recommended limits for teens’ sugar consumption from all foods.

Soft drinks are a problem not only for what they contain, but for what they push out of the diet. In 1977–78, boys consumed more than twice as much milk as soft drinks, and girls consumed 50 percent more milk than soft drinks. By 1994–96, both boys and girls consumed twice as much soda pop as milk. Heavy soft drink consumption is associated with lower intake of numerous vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber.

The empty calories of soft drinks are likely contributing to health problems, particularly overweight and obesity. Those conditions have become far more prevalent during the period in which soft drink consumption has soared. Several scientific studies have provided experimental evidence that soft drinks are directly related to weight gain. That weight gain, in turn, is a prime risk factor for type 2 diabetes, which, for the first time, is becoming a problem for teens as well as adults. As people get older, excess weight also contributes to heart attacks, strokes, and cancer.

via Liquid Candy: How Sugary Drinks Are Harming America’s Health ~ CSPI.