Overweight and Obesity: The Other Epidemic

Health data confirm this: Overweight and its extreme expression, obesity is a condition that afflicts out of control and threatens to about 40% percent of the world’s population because of its close relationship with the disease cronicodegerativas and cancer.

Popularly used to refer to problems resulting aesthetic character of overeating, without any reference to the medical consequences that stored fat in the body, overweight and obesity are serious and complex health problem, very little known by the population, which brings multiple effects on the welfare and stability of the people, and strong pressures on health services in all countries.

The more often trivialized and reduced to the unwillingness of affected appetite to dominate, if not known use of stereotypes, overweight and obesity is a disease of long duration, with an increasing number of cases in time , characterized by excessive accumulation of fat in the body, ie by an abnormal weight for height and structure of the individual, which results in changes to their quality of life and serious illness.

Fruit in general imbalance between calories consumed and energy expended, as the own organic functioning of individuals, overweight and obesity have a multifactorial origin, not quite discovered in its various components, mainly associated with poor eating habits, lack exercise, behavioral, genetic faults, metabolic problems, mismatches in the natural system called ponderostato or control of body weight and the administration of drugs habitually induce the accumulation of fats and in some cases endocrine .

That is, the abusive consumption of foods rich in carbohydrates and saturated fat, sedentary lifestyle when there is conclusive evidence that physical activity is critical for the use of the body’s energy, emotional problems and nervous system disorders, such as depression, hypoactivity and psychological disorders, and genetic deficiencies that may act individually or together.

In addition to inefficient use of energy consumption of calories you eat, errors in the mechanism of satiety and estimating doing the correct body weight, administration of corticosteroids, antidepressants and TB, which usually cause fat accumulation and alterations chromosome, such as Down syndrome and Turner syndrome.

Apparent simplicity of diagnosis, which is seen when the clothes look tight or the scale shows a weight increase over the previous record, overweight and obesity are not actually an easy condition to determine, as a person may have a high weight along with significant musculature or normal weight with high levels of fat above the considered normal, especially if you do not have a reference standard.

The techniques known to warn the degree of damage that has body fat on the body of an individual are the Brocca Formula, Measure the skinfold and Quetelet Index or Body Mass Index (BMI), along with densitometric models diluccionales and even CT scans and MRI.

However, no more widespread and reliable procedure among medical professionals worldwide than BMI, because this represents one rough measure not absolute, valid for people of any age and sex, which is calculated by dividing the weight by the height squared, and to compare it with the precise boundaries of the table of the same name, determines whether an individual is underweight, healthy weight, overweight, obesity grade 1, grado2 obesity or morbid obesity. According to the same standards as an overweight person is not necessarily obese, but if your body fat exceeds 30 percent is in the presence of someone with obesity.

Beyond the aesthetic drawbacks or the psychological and emotional effects generated on the welfare of the people, of his very important, overweight and obesity enclose undeniable and serious physical health consequences, particularly on the functioning of the organism. According to medical evidence, excess weight requires most of the body to make an extreme effort, sustained over time causes resent the various bodies and injured, degenerating into complications and diseases, often irreversible that diminish the quality and life expectancy of the sufferer.

Overweight is a BMI in the range of 25 to 29.9, but represents a considerable excess weight, but still lightweight, subjected to strong pressure and wear to the bones and joints of the feet, knees, legs, hips, waist and back of a person, as a nuisance in performance and locomotion, with an increased level of average risk of developing respiratory problems, cholesterol, hypertension, etc..

While obesity or BMI greater than 30, besides the above complications jeopardizing the person to generate a wide range of chronic diseases or long-lasting, ranging from diabetes, to some cancers including endometrial , breast and colon. Addition to the obvious consequences on mobility, which prevent the realization of even the simplest activities.

Evidence suggests that obesity increases risks for coronary heart and cardiovascular diseases, such as occurrence of angina, myocardial infarction, cerebrovascular disease, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism and dangerous blood clots may end up lodged in the vessels supplying blood to the heart or brain, due to the decrease the diameter of the vessels generated by the accumulation of fatty plaques ..

Just as diabetes, because the pancreas does not malfunction, but because the amount of insulin produced by the obese person is insufficient to body weight; breathing, such as snoring, sleep apnea, morning headaches and blue coloration of the skin problems caused by reduced total lung volume associated, liver, gallbladder and hormonal problems due to high volume of accumulated fat.

International health statistics are the best tool to gauge the health problem of obesity. 26% of obese people also suffer from hypertension, 80% of those with type 2 diabetes, suffer from obesity problems, 70% cardiovascular problems are related to obesity problems, 42% of people with breast and colon cancer are obese, 30% of gallbladder problems are related to obesity and the most dramatic fact, obese people are 50% more likely to risk of death than those with normal weight,

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), overweight and obesity is a disease state of uncontrolled expansion, a common health condition among men, women, children and elderly in all sexes and social classes of the five continents, has increased geometrically in the last quarter-century into an epidemic with a high social and economic cost.

Although strictly speaking the term epidemic is used conventionally to refer to a type contagious viral disease that affects a large number of individuals, using epidemic in relation to overweight and obesity is a universally accepted meaning because of the high number case and its rapid and uncontrollable spread in a short time.

The most recent data from WHO warn that in the world there are more than 1.6 billion overweight adults and at least 400 million obese, and 20 million children under five are overweight. Of the total 200 million obese adults living in the European Union, only the United States has 100 million adults are overweight or obese, while 52.2 million Mexico. According to the same figures (mainly heart disease and stroke) cardiovascular disease closely linked to obesity is the leading cause of death worldwide, with 17 million deaths per year, ie 64% of the total.

The numbers are chilling in Mexico. Between 1998 and 2006 the number of overweight and obese adults, the percentage of female adolescents with 7.8% step disease has doubled to 33% in school children aged five to eleven overweight increased 27%, while obesity did 47% (ENSANUT 2006) and the worst, 24% of the population over 15 years (forty-four million people, has more than 30 IMS, which officially makes our country in second place of obesity in the world and the excess fat, chronic degenerative diseases associated with the leading cause of death among Mexicans.

The outlook for public health of overweight and obesity is worrying, however excess fat in the body and associated diseases are feasible to avoid. There are different treatments for overweight and obesity, the best for each person depend on the degree of obesity in question, the origin of it, and among others, has the potential to change your lifestyle and particularly the orientation of a medical certificate.

Indeed disease is multifactorial in origin and as such often requires a multidisciplinary approach, which is also important not to forget the commitment they have public and private sectors, governments, international organizations, health professionals and society civil to create healthy environments and making healthier diet options affordable.

It is up to each of us, inform us properly about overweight and obesity, our precise extent and risks, and develop the best healthy behaviors to our lifestyle. Let’s be responsible with our health and our family. Let’s review our IMC and let us go if we suffer the condition your doctor or health clinic stipulated sector.