Effects of Obesity - Research Paper Example

Effects of Obesity Introduction The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention warns that obesity is a very dangerous medical condition, which is detrimental to human health. According to the Centre, an obese person is one who has excessive accumulation of body fat such that the body mass index (BMI) exceeds 30 kg/m2. Such accumulation of body fat leaves a person vulnerable to heart disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes, osteoarthritis and obstructive sleep apnea. Likewise, other projected studies indicate that diabetes also have psychological effects. Due to the superficiality of the society, physical attractiveness becomes the criteria for social interaction leaving obese people socially secluded. Obesity is also likely to cause high blood pressure and gynecological problems such as infertility especially in women. The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention proposes dieting and physical exercise as the best way to reduce excessive accumulation of body fat for obese patients and the best way to keep optimal body mass index for non-obese people. There is medication that helps obese patients reduce their appetite. Medical experts also recommend the use of gastric balloon to help reduce weight. Causes of Obesity According to the Centre, an obese person is one who has excessive accumulation of body fat such that the body mass index (BMI) exceeds 30 kg/m2. The most common cause of obesity is excessive consumption of food energy and lack of adequate physical exercise. Other projected causes include epigenetic risk factors, psychiatric illness, inadequate sleep, natural selection and endocrine disruptors. Obesity is also attributable to certain environmental pollutants, diminishing variance in ambient temperature and the tendency to overuse medication whose effects include gaining weight (Fumento 6). According to Heather Collins of Columbia University, there has been a worrying trend in America and the developing world. People are gradually being assimilated into a sedentary lifestyle. In this lifestyle, children play less and people avoid physically demanding work such as manual labor. As a result, both adults and children become physically weak limiting their bodies’ strength. Collins believes that the sedentary lifestyle is likely to consume the American society since people develop weird eating habits subsequently ignoring the right food combination i.e. balanced diet. A conventional balanced diet comprises significant amounts of carbohydrates, proteins and vitamins. Even the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention reckons that many of the contemporary American families insist on consuming foodstuff that falls short of the balanced diet such as fast foods and take out. These foodstuffs contain a lot of fat, which accumulates in the body posing the risk of obesity and the related diseases (Keller 45). Effects of Obesity Health Risks Obesity poses serious risks to an individual’s health by making them susceptible to various diseases. For instance, medical experts reckon that obese people are more susceptible to heart disease and strokes. Stroke and heart disease are the leading causes of disability and death amongst women and men in the developed west, according to American Journal of Medical Services. People whose body mass index exceeds 30 kg/m2 tend to be overweight thus making them vulnerable to high blood pressure. People with huge amounts of fat flowing in their bloodstream have high levels of triglycerides and cholesterol, which are major risk factors for stroke and coronary heart disease. (Levy-Navarro 87) The emergence of chest pains (medical term is angina) is also attributable to obesity and bulimia. Overweight people often have a lot of fat around the diaphragm. This fat blocks the flow of blood and oxygen into and out of the pulmonary arteries through the pulmonary veins. Due to decreased oxygen, one can easily suffer immediate stroke or coronary heart disease. With the prevalence of type 2 diabetes (medical reference is non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus) in the western world, emerging studies have linked culinary deviance to type 2 diabetes (Pool 80). The sedentary lifestyle in the west causes people to ignore balanced diet by consuming too much fat and ultimately becoming overweight. Statistically, obese people are three times more likely to be diabetic. Type 2 diabetes compromises the capacity of the body to control blood sugar. It may also cause stroke, kidney disease, blindness and early death. Medical research has linked obesity with certain types of cancer especially amongst women. For women, obesity causes breast cancer, cervix cancer and cancer of the uterus. The most common cancer amongst overweight men is prostate cancer. Medical expert reckon that obstructive sleep apnea is another health risk associated with overweight people. Obesity causes the patient to stop breathing momentarily while they are sleeping. One of the symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea is snoring heavily and to feel extremely sleepy during the day. This is a major health risk since most of the times it is the onset of heart failure (Levy-Navarro 92). Other projected health risks for obese people include gout, osteoarthritis and gallbladder disease. Osteoarthritis affects the joints – lower back, knees and hips – causing them to experience pain. Gout, on the other hand, is caused by heightened levels of uric acid in one’s bloodstream. It affects the joints as well. Gallbladder disease is caused by fluctuations in cholesterol and fat levels in the bloodstream. Hypertension/ high blood pressure is also common in obese people (William 76). Social Predicament Social psychologists believe that overweight people are more likely to experience social exclusion causing them to suffer from depression and stress. Due to the mainstream notion that thinness is the ideal physical shape, the modern society has developed an avenue where fat people feel as if they are not part of the ideal world. The growth of the superficial notion has in turn affected a lot of obese kids and adults alike (Levy-Navarro 47). According to a seminal pamphlet released by Graham University, the rise of school-age bullying has increased the suicide rates amongst children considered to socially awkward. Such kids are often the ones with abnormal physical appearances such as the overweight ones. Bullying does not necessarily refer to physical torture; emotional torture is perhaps even more hurtful especially for the obese children (Kopelman 46). Psychologists reckon that obesity increases the chances for children to alienate themselves from others for fear of disapproval since they have grown to believe that they are not beautiful. Social exclusion is a serious effect of obesity especially when it relates to children. Studies have shown that social exclusion leads to loneliness causing the victim to contemplate suicide. According to a survey conducted by Gallup International, 78 percent of the suicides committed in high school and college are related to school age bullying (both physical and psychological torture). Further research indicates that over two thirds of this percentage includes obese children. This is a worrying trend yet it has endured in our society due to the superficial reasoning of everybody in it (Kopelman 47). Apart from suicide, obesity causes loneliness, stress and depression. Due to discrimination based on physical appearance obese kids and adults tend to be lonely. S loneliness sinks deeper, they experience stress as they always think that everybody hates them (William 98). Increased stress makes people to become even more socially awkward since they are always second guessing their decisions. This, in turn, develops into depression, which is a serious medical condition. Morbidity In light of emerging medical research, obesity is a risk factor mental and physical conditions and obesity-associated morbidity. These include infertility in women since obese women have high levels of estrogen, which interfere with normal ovulation. In men, excess fat and cholesterol due to excess estrogen alters spermatogenesis. Doctors now believe that there compilations during pregnancy that are associated with obesity. Such complications are the risk of infection for the fetus and hemorrhage (Pool 356). Risk Mitigation Since the major cause of obesity is ignorance of the right food combination and lack of adequate physical exercise, it is important to adopt a proper diet for one’s family and insist on physical exercise. In case symptoms persist, it is necessary to seek the opinion of a medical expert or a physician. For extreme cases, there is a medical operation that removes excess fat around the stomach (Kopelman 7). Conclusion According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, an obese person is one who has excessive accumulation of body fat such that the body mass index (BMI) exceeds 30 kg/m2. Some of the projected health risks associated with obesity include heart disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes, osteoarthritis, obstructive sleep apnea, high blood pressure and gynecological problems such as infertility especially in women. Diabetes also has psychological effects such as loneliness, stress and depression resulting from social alienation and school-age bullying. The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention proposes dieting and physical exercise as the best way to reduce excessive accumulation of body fat for obese patients and the best way to keep optimal body mass index for non-obese people. Works Cited Fumento, Michael The Fat of the Land: Our Health Crises and How Overweight Americans can Help Themselves New York: Penguin Books (1997). Keller, Kathleen Encyclopedia of Obesity. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications, Inc. (2008) Kopelman, Peter G. Clinical obesity in adults and children: In Adults and Children. Blackwell Publishing (2005) Levy-Navarro, Elena The Culture of Obesity in Early and Late Modernity. Palgrave Macmillan. (2008). Pool, Robert Fat: Fighting the Obesity Epidemic. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press (2001). William H. Dietz Clinical obesity in adults and children: In Adults and Children. Blackwell Publishing, (2005) Read More