Obesity
WHAT IS OBESITY?
Obesity is one of the serious diseases of the modern age, which is frequently seen in developed and developing countries. Obesity should be considered as a serious disease due to it brings many short or long-term fatal diseases with it, if it is not treated.
Being obese causes an undesirable appearance and therefore brings psychological problems and causes fatal diseases. The patient should be treated in order to reduce and retaining their ideal weight.
According to the research of the World Health Organization, obesity has increased 3 times in the last 40 years all over the world. It was determined that 1.9 billion adult people in the world are overweight and 650 million of them are obese in 2016.
The obesity rate in Turkiye is increasing day by day as in other countries. According to a study conducted by the Ministry of Health, the prevalence of obesity in Turkey was found to be 20.5% in men, 41.0% in women, and 30.3%. In total, overweight is 34.6%, overweight and obese are 64.9%, and the rate of very obese is 2.9%.
Obesity can generally be defined as an excessive increase fat ratio in the body compared to other components of the body, which will affect the health. Excessive amount of fat affects the body hormones and causes increase the secretion of some hormones that make the body want to eat more. It is like a vicious circle.
The person’s desire to eat increases even more, causing the progression of obesity. Depending on the chemical and hormonal factors secreted from the accumulated adipose tissue, additional diseases occur and as a result, the quality of life and life span of the person are adversely affected.
Obesity is a treatable disease. It can be treated with weight loss diets and applications that support it.
Limitation of movement is also a problem in people who are extremely obese. Since the life risks are high in overweight obese patients, obesity surgery can be performed with the decision of the doctor in order to achieve rapid results.
Table Of Contents
AM I OBESE?
Not every overweight person is considered obese. Rather than the weight value seen on the scale, the ratio of this value (taking into account the age and gender of the person) to the person’s height is important. For this purpose, body mass index is used and obesity status is evaluated according to the reference ranges of the World Health Organization.
Obesity class is determined by calculation of Body Mass Index (Body Mass Index = BMI ). It is calculated by dividing the body weight in meters by the square of the height in meters.
According to the values found, it is considered obese over 30 kg/m2, morbidly obese over 40 kg/m2 and super obese over 50 kg/m2.
In addition to body mass index, age, gender, daily activity level, waist and hip circumference, subcutaneous fat tissue thickness and muscle mass are also important in the evaluation.
> CALCULATE YOUR BODY MASS INDEX
WHAT CAUSES OBESITY AND OWERWEIGHT?
There are several factors can play a role in gaining and retaining excess weight. These are diet, lack of exercise, psychological disorders, environmental factors, and genetics.
The main cause of obesity is that the person takes more energy with food than he spends.
The excess energy is stored as fat in the body. However, genetic factors, psychological reasons and some diseases increase weight gaining. Hormonal disorders, thyroid disease and some medications also trigger weight gaining.
If each of the parents of the children is overweight, the probability of these children to be overweight in adulthood is high due to genetic factors. However, it is wrong to attribute the cause of obesity to this. This risk factor can be eliminated by changing the lifestyle and diet at a young age.
Habits such as irregular and unhealthy diet, sedentary lifestyle, consuming fast food and sugary foods, and consuming excessive amounts of food when hungry are important reasons for the obesity.
The deterioration of metabolic balances due to obesity brings along many additional diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, heart diseases, sleep apnea.
CONSEQUENCES OF OBESITY
Obesity disease can not be seen as just weight gaining, an increase in the amount of fat in the body, or increase in body mass index. At the same time, the person’s vital organs begin gain visceral fat.
Obesity is the underlying cause of many clinical diseases.
Type 2 diabetes and increased insulin resistance
Insulin is a vital hormone secreted by the pancreas. It separates the sugar taken from food in the blood and allows it to enter the cells for energy needs.
Thus, the level of sugar in the blood decreases. As the amount of fat in the person’s body increases, the cells become less sensitive to the insulin hormone secreted by the metabolism. Therefore, insulin cannot separate the sugar in the blood and blood sugar rises. Insulin resistance is the most important problem that causes the development of diabetes symptoms.
Type-2 diabetes and insulin resistance, which are named as pre-diabetes, are prevented by controlling excess weight and thus reducing insulin resistance.
Cardiovascular diseases
The excess amount of fat affects the work of the heart in obese persons. At the same time, insulin resistance and high blood sugar cause vascular diseases by disrupting the structure of the vessels. People who are overweight have a much higher risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. This risk can be eliminated by weight loss of person to their ideal weight.
Hypertension
The causes of hypertension are the same as those of cardiovascular diseases. Causes such as excessive insulin secretion and insulin resistance, fat and plaque in the veins cause hypertension.
Sleep apnea
The pressure due to excess weight narrows the airways and prevents the person from breathing regularly during sleep. At the same time, breathing difficulty caused by sagging in the nasal and uvula region causes sleep apnea, which is known as interruption in breathing during sleep.
Psychological problems
An overweight person may be excluded by the society due to appearance and aesthetic concerns, which causes psychological disorders such as lack of self-confidence, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Cancer
It has been determined that excess weight causes cancers such as prostate and colon cancers in men, and cancers of the endometrium, ovary and breast in women.
In addition, unless the disease is treated, obesity is one of the important risk factors underlying vital diseases such as asthma, gallbladder diseases, musculoskeletal system diseases and paralysis.
Infertility
Infertility is an important health problem that affects both society and family. It is difficult to manage and affects the psychosocial situation negatively for women and men. Because it is not only psychologically stressful and economically costly, but also creates physiological and emotional problems for couples due to diagnosis, therapeutic procedures and unclear pregnancy outcomes.
Obesity is definitely a treatable disease.
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