|
|
Obesity
Image Notes: Silhouettes representing healthy, overweight, and obese.
Obesity is a condition in which the natural energy reserve, stored in the fatty tissue of humans and other mammals, is increased to a point where it is associated with certain health conditions or increased mortality.
Obesity is both an individual clinical condition and is increasingly viewed as a serious public health problem. Excessive body weight has been shown to predispose to various diseases, particularly cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus type 2, sleep apnea, and osteoarthritis.
Effects on health
Obesity, especially central obesity (male-type or waist-predominant obesity), is an important risk factor for the "metabolic syndrome" ("syndrome X"), the clustering of a number of diseases and risk factors that heavily predispose for cardiovascular disease. These are diabetes mellitus type 2, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, and triglyceride levels (combined hyperlipidemia). An inflammatory state is present, which—together with the above—has been implicated in the high prevalence of atherosclerosis (fatty lumps in the arterial wall), and a prothrombotic state may further worsen cardiovascular risk.
Apart from the metabolic syndrome, obesity is also correlated (in population studies) with a variety of other complications. For many of these complaints, it has not been clearly established to what extent they are caused directly by obesity itself, or have some other cause (such as limited exercise) that causes obesity as well. Most confidence in a direct cause is given to the mechanical complications in the following list:
- Cardiovascular: congestive heart failure, enlarged heart and its associated arrhythmias and dizziness, cor pulmonale, varicose veins, and pulmonary embolism
- Endocrine: polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), menstrual disorders, and infertility
- Gastrointestinal: gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), fatty liver disease, cholelithiasis (gallstones), hernia, and colorectal cancer
- Renal and genitourinary: erectile dysfunction, urinary incontinence, chronic renal failure, hypogonadism (male), breast cancer (female), uterine cancer (female), stillbirth
- Integument (skin and appendages): stretch marks, acanthosis nigricans, lymphedema, cellulitis, carbuncles, intertrigo
- Musculoskeletal: hyperuricemia (which predisposes to gout), immobility, osteoarthritis, low back pain
- Neurologic: stroke, meralgia paresthetica, headache, carpal tunnel syndrome, dementia
- Respiratory: dyspnea, obstructive sleep apnea, hypoventilation syndrome, Pickwickian syndrome, asthma
- Psychological: Depression, low self esteem, body dysmorphic disorder, social stigmatization
While being severely obese has many health ramifications, those who are somewhat overweight face little increased mortality or morbidity. Some studies suggest that the somewhat "overweight" tend to live longer than those at their "ideal" weight. This may in part be attributable to lower mortality rates in diseases where death is either caused or contributed to by significant weight loss due to the greater risk of being underweight experienced by those in the ideal category. Another factor which may confound mortality data is smoking, since obese individuals are less likely to smoke[citation needed]. Osteoporosis is known to occur less in slightly overweight people.
Text and images are licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. Material is used from the Wikipedia article "Obesity".
Other Related Articles
|
|
|
|
|
All logos and trademarks in this site are the property of their respective owners. Opinions expressed in articles within this site are those of their owners and may not reflect the opinion of EasyHealthHelp.com, its employees, or its associates.
|
|
Conditions 