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Complications

The Problems That Obesity Causes

Obesity takes a toll on more than your self-image. It can seriously affect your health.

Reduced Life Expectancy

The first problem of obesity to focus on is the one that many obese people want to touch upon the least: You are less likely to live a long life if you have a BMI of over 35. The life insurance companies have known this for a long time. They know that, for life insurance purposes, obesity is correlated with a higher risk of mortality due to complications associated with obesity.

According to a study by leading researchers of the Lap Band procedure, the relative risk of dying is increased at a BMI of 35 or higher and, at a BMI of 40, the risk is nearly three times that of people who have normal weight. The risk increases very steeply from a BMI of 40 and upward.

Physical Limitations & Social Isolation

Although it's unfortunate, most individuals considered obese are unable to perform physical and social tasks that are routinely performed by those with a healthy weight and BMI. Physical activity of any sort can be quite difficult due to shortness of breath or lethargy, which can make daily tasks such as housework or standard employment a challenge.

Most morbidly obese people cannot buy clothes easily and some have difficulty getting into and out of cars, or into seats on the bus or at the movie theater. Flexibility is reduced and can lead to tasks such as clipping toenails becoming a shared responsibility between the obese individual and a loved one. Personal hygiene might even pose a problem.

Airplane travel also can lead to social embarrassment. A person categorized as obese may need to ask for an extension for the seat belt. He or she may not be able to lower the table down. They may see the person located in the seat next to them go to the flight attendant and ask for another seat. Just the thought of these things happening can make anyone with a high BMI feel socially isolated and lead to depression and feelings of hopelessness: especially if they have tried dieting, medications, and exercise without seeing any substantial weight-loss.

Obese people suffer social bias, prejudice and discrimination as a result of their appearance. Society stigmatizes the obese. Obesity is probably the only area left where discrimination is still considered acceptable. Unfavorable remarks about someone because of their sex, race or disability are not acceptable in our society today, and rightly so. Unfortunately, unfavorable remarks about someone's weight are still considered acceptable by many in the United States today, which can lead to many feeling unaccepted solely because of their weight.

Co-Morbidities: Diseases & Conditions Correlated with Obesity

The Centers for Disease control in Atlanta, Georgia, estimated that there were between 111,000 and 380,000 deaths from obesity-related diseases in the United States during the year 2000. Even those under the age of 18 are being affected by obesity. There is a long list of illnesses that are either caused by obesity or are made worse by obesity. These include, but are not limited to the following.

  • Diabetes
  • Heart Disease
  • Cancer (Breast, Gastrointestinal, Prostate and Endometrial)
  • High Blood Pressure (Hypertension)
  • Asthma
  • Sleep Apnea (Obstructive)
  • Gallstones
  • Infertility
  • Depression
  • Low Back Pain
  • Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome
  • Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH)
  • Cardiomyopathy
  • Hypoventilation Syndromes
  • Urinary Incontinence
  • Gastro-Esophageal Reflux Disease
  • Arthritis (Weight Bearing)
  • Thromboembolism
  • Immobility
  • Ulcers (Venous/Stasis)
 

Summary

Obesity is one of the biggest health concerns of the 21st century. In the United States alone, nearly two-thirds of the adult population is considered obese by the American Obesity Association. Obesity is the worst cause of disease in the Western world. The quality of life obese men and women do have is severely affected due to the physical and social problems generated by the disease. It costs communities a great deal of money because of the direct and indirect effects of the health problems associated with obesity.

If losing weight solves even some of these problems, and if we can find an acceptable and effective way to lose weight, society as a whole should go for it. True Results is combating the national obesity crisis by giving patients a powerful tool proven to go above and beyond of what diets and medications offer for lasting weight-loss.

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