Facts about obesity
Obesity and being overweight have become big problems in America. Current numbers are daunting: more than half of Americans are overweight, including the 25 percent who are clinically obese, according to NIH statistics. To add injury to the insult, excess weight significantly increases individual risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, osteoarthritis and other conditions. In other words, weight management is about more than gluttony and vanity, it's about quality and duration of life and the prevention of debilitating diseases.
We are becoming overweight when the amount of calories in our body is higher
than we need, which is directly related to our eating habits, and very low
physical activity.
Obesity in adults is of hypertrophic type - fat cells grow larger, and after
gaining the maximum size - new fat cells - adipocytes begin to be produced.
Obesity in children is of hyperplasic type - the more calories a child is
provided with, the more adipocytes. Large fat cells discharge more substances
that pathologically stimulate the appetite.
Neuropeptide Y should be mentioned here, which increases appetite for carbohydrates and craving for a fatty meal. Insulin is also secreted in excess particularly after meals. The level of glucose in blood falls very quickly and the person, who has just eaten, has ravenous hunger and wants to eat something quickly. The secretion of leptin and resistine controlling our appetite and stimulating physical effort is also disturbed by adipocytes.
It must be stressed that obesity is rarely connected with the lowered metabolism. On the contrary, obese people have higher metabolism than the ones with regular weight. It is connected with the increased demand for calories with a large body weight. It should be pointed out that endocrinologic diseases may have an impact on obesity such as hypothyreosis, or Cushing syndrome.
Various diseases related to obesity depend not only on body weight and the level of obesity, but also on the arrangement of adipose tissue. The most dangerous is the abdominal obesity as it is connected with hypertension, diabetes, increased level of cholesterol and coronary disease. That is why WHO (World Health Organization) introduced so called the waist measurement. For women the upper limit on average is 30.2 inches, being overweight if it is over 35 inches. For men: 35.3 and 42 inches respectively.
The most common diseases connected with obesity are diabetes of type II, arterial hypertension, coronary disease, stroke as well as respiratory disturbances, cholelithiasis, degenerative joint disease and some tumors.
Skin diseases accompanying obesity are first of all vascular disorders. Swelling, the symptom of heavy legs, hindered outflow of lymph from legs, as well as varicose veins and venectasia. Varicose veins are the enlarged leg vessels connected with the disappearance of elastic fibres in their walls and insufficiency of venous valves.
Obese people come down with infections on account of the coexistence of systemic diseases such as diabetes. Difficulties in maintaining hygiene as well as excessive perspiration, adherence of skin folds: bacterial (folliculitis, furuncles), mycotic (athlete's foot, onychomycosis, ringworm of the genitocrural region and other folds) are also possible. Mixed infections are not scarce. People with obesity problem have difficulty maintaining proper hygiene e.g. wash their feet, trim the nails, etc..
