Mass Obesity - the Problem of Developed Countries - Research Paper Example

 The Extent at which Obesity Affects the US and China Most countries in the world, for example US and China are experiencing major industrial developments that have greatly boosted their economies. In as much as this is beneficial for every country’s wellbeing, it comes with various health challenges. Due to change in lifestyle seen in industrialized and developed countries, individuals face more risks of some diseases and health conditions. Among the major concerns in the public health sector in the US and China is the problem of obesity and overweight which is brought about by sedentary lifestyle and eating too much of calories. The victims of this kind of lifestyle expose themselves to risks of several health issues and increased morbidity. However, obesity is not onlya concern that is characteristic in one or two nations but is a global issue. As such, every individual, be it adults or youths, must be well concerned with this problem because of its risk factors. It is prudent for everybody to observe healthy habits so to ensure healthy living. This discussion is of great significance as it provides information to families and various health practitioners and consultants. Much action is needed in our families and in the public at large, so that appropriate advice and measures can be taken towards curbing the problem. The main incentive to eliminate it will be to recognize it as the major risk factor of various chronic diseases and health problems. With the increased pace of industrialization and change of lifestyles, immediate action is required especially in the major developed countries like USA and China. Obesity is a medical condition whose history can be dated many years ago. The ancient civilizations including the Egyptian, Indian, Meso-American and the Babylonian traditions had documentations of it as a clinical condition (Bray). Presence of the condition was portrayed in the stone drawings, which date back several centuries ago. Some of these were found in Europe and Russia and date back 20000 years ago. Others were also identified in Austria (Bray 3). Most of these portrayals mostly showed obese women. Hippocrates observed obesity as that condition that caused sudden death and argued that it was not only a problem of its own but one that harbors many diseases (Frank 7). Several scholars in the 17th century also identified the problem and discussed it in their books. Short, a scholar discussed some of the treatments of obesity in the books he wrote. Fleming followed with his work on four causes of obesity, where he mentioned factors like overeating. All these were followed by the writings of Rony in the year 1940 (Frank 7). Most concepts that act as the basis of several researches have their origins in the 18th century. Major scholars in this century include Santorio of Italy, who developed a scale of weighing his weight.Lavoisier made several studies and came up with the concept of energy balance as concerns the human body. Quetelet, who came up with what is now known as the BMI index, and Atwater who argued that the law of conservation of energy applied to human beings were also some of the major contributors of this field in the 19th century. Some of the contributions of the 20th century include experimental approaches that have widely used instruments such as Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry and Computed Tomography (CT). These have formed the basis of current research and improved people’s understanding in the treatment of Obesity. One notable discovery of this century is the hormone Leptin that regulates appetite. This advancement led to the discovery of other important hormones used in managing obesity. The last few decades has seen several researches in the relationship of obesity, diet and chronic diseases. Several researches are still in progress especially those that involve epidemiology of obesity (Frank 7). Statistics show that two-thirds of the US adults are either obese or overweight. This is due to the current way of life where people consume many high calorie foods without exercise (Sucio 166). The United States and Western Europe have seen a faster growth of these cases especially due to the presence of lower income and the diet ignorant members of the society. These people do not make good diet choices and have widely embraced sedentary lifestyles. Emerging nations such as the ones in Asia are not left out in this pandemic. Obesity has emerged because of their economic growth and their increase in wealth as prevalent in some sections of the society. In China, this problem exists among the wealthy members of the society, whose number is constantly growing due to fast-paced industrialization process (French and Crabbe 17).Some of the wealthy class is found in the urban areas where individuals have started to emulate the western lifestyle and diet. The kind of lifestyle embraced in the US is getting its roots in china as many Chinese forget their traditional lifestyle to copy the western culture (Behnassi, Draggan and Yaya 34). The problem of obesity is also prevalent in Africa, especially in North Africa, which has much influence of Western culture. In the world today, an overwhelming high number of 1.5 billion adults are overweight, according to World Health Organization. From this number, 200 million men and 300 million women are obese (Sucio 166). Over the past years, there has been a rapid growth of obesity especially among adults.Cases of obesity among the younger population are different from adults. Studies in the US indicate that among the 32% of school children who were considered overweight in the 2007-2008 survey, nearly 17% of them were obese. Even young children between the ages of 6 and 12 are affected by this problem; the condition is also seen among Infants and children of between 6 and 23 months experience. These children are at risk of other diseases such as asthma, diabetes and stroke (Kazaks and Stern 7). The US government launched the CARE project with an intention of providing information and health advice, conducting research and implementing programs. Industry, schools and the community also do respond in the same spirit. As such, China has also published a national plan of action to curb the problem. A systematic plan on how to fight diseases like diabetes, certain cancers and high blood pressure has since been launched. Other countries that have taken this step include Europe, France, and Canada (Paillard, Treyer and Dorin 186).There are also treatment measures especially in the developed countries though in some countries such measures are still lacking, an example is rural China where severely obese children are still ignored (Wertz and Fletcher 39). There is likelihood that treatment approaches seen in these developed countries will influence the developing ones like China. Some of the measures that most countries take include taking regulatory measures on food promotion. Most government, including the US, have since proposed a burn in advertisements promoting junk foods, a move that has met so much criticisms especially from the industry personnel who argue that they will lose market and jobs.It is obvious that if countries impose burns on manufactured foods that are considered detrimental to health, exporters will lose market globally (Shah). The current situation of obesity in the world is likely to worsen in the future, hence the need for prompt measures against its causes. A research conducted by WHO in 2005 estimated the figures of obese people in the world at 400 million and the figures were expected to rise to 700 million in 2025. Some studies that used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) indicated that cases of obesity increased from 11.1% in the 1970’s to a higher figure of 19.3% in the earlier periods of the year 2000. Studies in Europe by the EUROASPIRE surveys indicated that cases of obese increased from 25% in the first study to 38% in the third study. These figures show how the prevalence f obesity has increased at a faster rate worldwide (Capodaglio, Faintuch and Liuzzi 56). In the US alone, the NHANES studies of 2007-2008 showed that obesity prevalence was at 33.8%, and the figures were expected to rise in the near future (Ferri 750). According to the predictions made by the IDF and WHO, 70% of the world’s increase in cases of obesity will be from the developing countries. The vulnerable group will be those at 65 years and below. China is a country that had few cases of obesity but has seen a high growth of obesity prevalence. In 2000, the surveys estimated the number of those affected to be 21 million but due to increasing industrialization, there has been an increasing prevalence of obesity (Herman, Kinmonth and Wareham 445). The high rate at which the cases of this condition are alarming and various countries as well as individuals need to take action in ensuring that the problem is maintained. Failure to take appropriate measure means that the highly productive individuals in these fast growing nations, USA and China, will be rendered economically unproductive due to diseases caused by obesity such as diabetes, sleep apnea, high blood pressure and stroke. The US has since put in place several measures to help prevent child obesity. These include community level interventions, school based programs, and media based health programs and family counseling. Studies indicate that these interventions are effective in one way or another though some still require reinforcements (Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine 152). For the overall success of these interventions, parents and caregivers at home need to take action in ensuring that family practices healthy living. Furthermore, policy makers and those involved in program planning should to evaluate all the obesity prevention strategies, strengthen them and develop quality measures in order to achieve their goals. The government, schools and the community must also be involved fully in research and monitoring of the programs (Committee on Progress in Preventing Childhood Obesity 344-345). International agreements can as well play a major role in reducing obesity by coming up with regulations on production of junk food. Though this has widely been criticized by industry players, it can help alleviate the problem (Lang, Barling and Caraher chap. 4). A recent survey conducted in Asian countries, America and Europe shows that there is disparity in the methods applied and the approaches taken to control obesity across countries. Very few countries, including China, do not have well-established systems and approaches towards reducing this problem (World Health Organization 164). There is need for the developed countries to extend financial aid and training to countries that have not fully met their obligations in controlling this problem. There is a faster growing number of obese cases across the US and China due to the kind of lifestyle that these two countries have embraced. As discussed above, there are possibilities that the number can rise higher than expected if appropriate actions are no taken. However, this is a global issue that is not restricted to any specific country, hence the need for every nation to act accordingly. China and the US differ in the number of cases of obese and overweight but still there is need for serious interventions. In the Arab world, there is a similar trend of higher number of obese cases in women than in men (Driouchi 237). Bahrain, for example, records an alarming high percentage of overweight cases of above 60% (Jabbour and Yamout 153).Similar studies also indicate cases of obesity in boys and girls of school age at 15.6% and 17.4% respectively (Parizkova and Hills 35).In 2007, studies indicated that the number of adult obese cases in this country stood at 15.2%, and the number was expected to rise considerably. The major cause of these higher percentages is the kind of diet that the Bahrainis have embraced. The kind of fatty foods that also lead to obesity expose them to a number of diseases such as high blood pressure, thyroid and diabetes (Kumar 675). Works Cited Behnassi, Mohamed, Sidney Draggan and Hachimi Sanni Yaya. Global Food Insecurity: Rethinking Agricultural and Rural Development Paradigm and Policy. Springer Science & Business Media, 2011. Bray, George A. The Metabolic Syndrome and Obesity. Springer Science & Business Media, 2008. —. Handbook of Obesity. CRC Press, 2014. Capodaglio, Paolo, Joel Faintuch and Antonio Liuzzi. Disabling Obesity: From Determinants to Health Care Models. Springer Science & Business Media, 2014. Committee on Progress in Preventing Childhood Obesity, Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine. Progress in Preventing Childhood Obesity:: How Do We Measure Up? National Academies Press, 2007. Driouchi, Ahmed. ICTs for Health, Education, and Socioeconomic Policies: Regional Cases: Regional Cases. IGI Global, 2013. Ferri, Fred F. Ferri's Clinical Advisor 2013: 5 Books in 1. Elsevier Health Sciences, 2012. Frank, Hu. Obesity Epidemiology. Oxford University Press, 2008. French, Paul and Matthew Crabbe. Fat China: How Expanding Waistlines are Changing a Nation. Anthem Press, 2010. Herman, William, et al. The Evidence Base for Diabetes Care. John Wiley & Sons, 2009. Jabbour, Samer and Rouham Yamout. Public Health in the Arab World. Cambridge University Press, 2012. Kazaks, Alexandra and Judith S. Stern. Nutrition and Obesity: Assessment, Management & Prevention. Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2012. Kumar, Dhavendra. Genomics and Health in the Developing World. Oxford University Press, 2012. Lang, Tim, David Barling and Martin Caraher. Food Policy: Integrating health, environment and society. Oxford University Press, 2009. Medicine, Food and Nutrition Board Institute of. Joint U.S.-Mexico Workshop on Preventing Obesity in Children and Youth of Mexican Origin. National Academies Press, 2007. 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