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The Health Risks Of Obesity And Its Underlying Causes
Those who are obese, have a shorter life expectancy, and an increased risk of many illnesses, including diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, osteoarthritis, gout, gallstones, reduction in exercise tolerance/level of fitness, and depression. Furthermore, general medical problems may be more difficult to treat in those who are obese. Gastrointestinal disorders, including indigestion, heartburn and constipation, may be more difficult to assess in an obese individual, as the information obtained from a medical examination may be limited. Additionally, the survival rate of the obese woman with breast cancer is lower than her slim counterpart.
The young obese individual who loses weight to normal or near-normal value may have a substantial improvement in life quality and expectancy, and reduction in risk in practically all of the above. The improvement in arthritis, gout, blood pressure, diabetes, or blood cholesterol level may be dramatic and evident within a few weeks or months of a dietary programme.
The underlying causes
Obesity tends to run in families. Research shows that if both parents are obese, 70 per cent of the children will be obese. If one parent is obese, 40 per cent of the children will be obese, and if both parents are lean, then only 10 per cent of the children will be obese. The predisposition of the parents is thus carried down partially to the children, but of course, we could argue that obese parents eat too much, and thus are likely to over-feed their children, making them obese in turn, and that this has nothing to do with genetics or inheritance. However, in studies of children who have been adopted, the adopted children take after the weight characteristics of their biological parents, rather than those of their adopted parents. This and other work lends substantial support to the idea that the tendency to obesity is to a large degree genetic.
Environment factors are significant as well. By environment is meant all the factors that occur around us and potentially influence our internal metabolism which we have already seen is initially determined by genetic make-up. With regard to obesity, the most important environmental factors are the food supply, level of exercise, lifestyle and social pressures.
If the food supply, for example, is so meagre that there is barely enough to go round, or starvation conditions exist, then obesity will obviously disappear from the community at large. In such a situation, with a limited food supply, environment is more important than any genetic factor. However, when there is an abundance of food, this allows the obesity tendency to express itself fully. When food is plentiful, some 25 per cent (or more as we have seen for countries like Australia and the USA) of the population may become obese.
The majority of obese individuals will have one parent who is overweight, and only a minority would be the offspring of two obese or two thin parents. At this point you might feel like shooting your mother and father, but this isn't very practical! Nor could one forbid the obese to reproduce. The effect of this would be surprisingly small and it would take several generations of extremely unpopular enforced birth control to even halve the rate of obesity in the population, or to restrict the food supply to the whole population, punishing lean and obese alike. Again, this is unlikely to win any favour with the population at large.
The only practical solution is in some way to change the eating habits of those who are overweight, while taking other steps to improve their rate of weight loss.
If you have had weight problems for some time it is important to ask your doctor to check your thyroid to see whether it is underactive. Also it advisable to ensure that you are not suffering with diabetes, or high blood pressure. If any of these checks are positive they will need addressing by conventional medical means.
The young obese individual who loses weight to normal or near-normal value may have a substantial improvement in life quality and expectancy, and reduction in risk in practically all of the above. The improvement in arthritis, gout, blood pressure, diabetes, or blood cholesterol level may be dramatic and evident within a few weeks or months of a dietary programme.
The underlying causes
Obesity tends to run in families. Research shows that if both parents are obese, 70 per cent of the children will be obese. If one parent is obese, 40 per cent of the children will be obese, and if both parents are lean, then only 10 per cent of the children will be obese. The predisposition of the parents is thus carried down partially to the children, but of course, we could argue that obese parents eat too much, and thus are likely to over-feed their children, making them obese in turn, and that this has nothing to do with genetics or inheritance. However, in studies of children who have been adopted, the adopted children take after the weight characteristics of their biological parents, rather than those of their adopted parents. This and other work lends substantial support to the idea that the tendency to obesity is to a large degree genetic.
Environment factors are significant as well. By environment is meant all the factors that occur around us and potentially influence our internal metabolism which we have already seen is initially determined by genetic make-up. With regard to obesity, the most important environmental factors are the food supply, level of exercise, lifestyle and social pressures.
If the food supply, for example, is so meagre that there is barely enough to go round, or starvation conditions exist, then obesity will obviously disappear from the community at large. In such a situation, with a limited food supply, environment is more important than any genetic factor. However, when there is an abundance of food, this allows the obesity tendency to express itself fully. When food is plentiful, some 25 per cent (or more as we have seen for countries like Australia and the USA) of the population may become obese.
The majority of obese individuals will have one parent who is overweight, and only a minority would be the offspring of two obese or two thin parents. At this point you might feel like shooting your mother and father, but this isn't very practical! Nor could one forbid the obese to reproduce. The effect of this would be surprisingly small and it would take several generations of extremely unpopular enforced birth control to even halve the rate of obesity in the population, or to restrict the food supply to the whole population, punishing lean and obese alike. Again, this is unlikely to win any favour with the population at large.
The only practical solution is in some way to change the eating habits of those who are overweight, while taking other steps to improve their rate of weight loss.
If you have had weight problems for some time it is important to ask your doctor to check your thyroid to see whether it is underactive. Also it advisable to ensure that you are not suffering with diabetes, or high blood pressure. If any of these checks are positive they will need addressing by conventional medical means.
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