Is obesity a public health issue?
Obesity is a grave public health threat, more serious even than the opioid epidemic. It is linked to chronic diseases including type 2 diabetes, hyperlipidemia, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. There are also substantial economic losses associated with obesity.
Is obesity a health condition?
Obesity is a complex disease involving an excessive amount of body fat. Obesity isn’t just a cosmetic concern. It is a medical problem that increases your risk of other diseases and health problems, such as heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and certain cancers.
Is obesity a mental or physical health issue?
Obesity has debilitating effects on both physical and mental health, and can lead to full-blown mental illness as a result of poor self-image and physical illnesses.
Why is obesity a contemporary health issue?
It is associated with an increased risk of diseases including diabetes, heart disease, osteoarthritis and cancer. Estimates suggest that being overweight (BMI 25 to less than 30) reduces life expectancy by about three years, and being obese (BMI 30 or more) can reduce life expectancy by 10 years (1).
Does anxiety cause obesity?
Increased cortisol levels, as the result of anxiety, cause fat to build up in the stomach and leads to an increase in weight. The longer that a person experiences stress and anxiety, the more weight he or she can potentially gain.
What can obesity lead to?
Consequences of Obesity
- All-causes of death (mortality)
- High blood pressure (hypertension)
- High LDL cholesterol, low HDL cholesterol, or high levels of triglycerides (Dyslipidemia)
- Type 2 diabetes.
- Coronary heart disease.
- Stroke.
- Gallbladder disease.
- Osteoarthritis (a breakdown of cartilage and bone within a joint)
What health problems can obesity lead to?
Obesity is a health concern. Without proper treatment, obesity can lead to other serious health problems, such as: osteoarthritis. heart disease and blood lipid abnormalities. stroke. type 2 diabetes. sleep apnea (when you periodically stop breathing during sleep) reproductive problems.
How does obesity impact your overall health?
People who are overweight or obese often have health problems that may increase the risk for heart disease. These health problems include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and high blood sugar. In addition, excess weight may cause changes to your heart that make it work harder to send blood to all the cells in your body.
Why is obesity bad for Your Heart and overall health?
High blood pressure can strain your heart, damage blood vessels, and raise your risk of heart attack, stroke, kidney disease, and death. Overweight and obesity may raise your risk for certain health problems such as high blood pressure. Heart disease is a term used to describe several problems that may affect your heart.
Is obesity the proximate cause of health problems?
Although obesity is a proximate cause of some health problems, it is also a consequence of other health conditions, poor diet, poverty, and so on. Obesity does not cause all the problems with which it is correlated, even when the association is strong, as with C-sections.