Obesity is a physical situation where a person’s body has accumulated too much fat that it can negatively affect his/her health. However, if your are overweight does not particularly mean you are obese. The attributes that show you are overweight can be different from those that show you are obese. For example, being overweight can be due to your muscle, bone, fat and/or also your body water. Whereas, for obesity we only talk about fat content of your body.
Factor that Define Obesity
A person’s health status with respect to his/her weight can be measured by using various aspects of his/her body. But one of the most important method used is Body Mass Index (BMI).
BMI calculates whether you weigh healthy enough as per your height.
BMI = weight/height
For example, here are some lists of BMI mentioned below to brief about a person’s health.
- 5 to 24.9 – Healthy
- 25 to 29.9 – Overweight
- 30 to 39.9 – Obese
- 40 and above – Severely Obese
BMI does not give an accurate result on proving whether the person is obese or not. A person can be very muscular to have a higher BMI that shows he/she is obese. However, for most cases, in order to indicate their health status, BMI is found very useful.
Disease that is caused due to obesity
Being obese is not good. It can show how a person have unhealthy choices of food. Gaining weight in the form of increasing fat in your body is not a good sign for your health.
Obesity has been one of the common public health problem from past few decades. This can be due to ignorance of food choices or lack of exercise. Many people are unaware of the consequences of being obese. There are a lot of major diseases associated with obesity.
The following listing can brief us about such major diseases caused out obesity.
- Cardiovascular diseases
- Endocrine diseases
- Gastrointestinal diseases
- Renal and Genitourinary diseases
- Integument diseases
- Musculoskeletal diseases
- Neurological diseases
- Respiratory diseases
- Psychological diseases
However, these disease may occur if you do not deal with your obese health situation on time.
Endocrine Diseases
Menstrual Disorder – A menstrual disorder affect a woman both physically and emotionally. If there is any changes in the normal menstrual cycle it could cause pain, menarche, missed periods or unusual bleeding that can be heavy or light.
Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) – If there is a fill up of cysts (sac filled with fluid) in the ovaries, it increases the level of androgen hormones (male hormones). Such women can experience a missed or irregular periods.
Infertility – Inability for a male or a female to contribute to conception.
Gastrointestinal Diseases
Fatty Liver Disease – As the name suggests, this disease causes accumulation of fats within the liver that can damage, inflate, and also form fibrous tissues sometimes. In some cases, this could also lead to cirrhosis that causes irreversible liver scarring or liver cancer (on a major note).
Hernia – When a body content emerges out of the area where it is contained, it leads to hernia. These contents can be a part of the intestine or abdominal fatty tissue.
Cholelithiasis (gallstones) – Gallstones are made up of bile that often hardens into a solid mass. Bile is a liquid stored in your gallbladder that helps one digest the fat from your body. A gallstone is formed when this bile consists of too much of cholesterol.
Renal and Genitourinary Diseases
Urinary Incontinence – Loss of bladder control that can cause issues from mild leaking to uncontrollable wetting.
Hypogonadism – When the sex glands secrete a very little amount or no amount of hormones.
Birth issues – Birth issues caused because of being obese like still birth where the fetus has died during labour or during delivery.
Integument Disorders
Acanthosis Nigricans – Light brown or black velvety marks around your neck, or under your arms or groin.
Cellulitis – Red, swollen area of skin that feels hot and tender and can also spread rapidly.
Intertrigo – Fungal, bacterial or viral infections that appears when the skin break out due to inflammation.
Stretch Marks – When a person gains weight really fast there are fine lines seen on various areas of your body called stretch marks.
Lymphedema – Localized retention of fluid caused due to a compromised lymphatic system. If the affected limb develops an uncontrollable infection, it could be dangerous for such individuals.
Musculoskeletal Diseases
Hyperuricemia – When your joints gets red, hot and swollen due to many reasons, for example excess fat accumulation, it could lead to a disease called as gout.
Immobility – Excess formation of fat makes your body unable to perform certain activities in a flexible manner. Some activities are limited in such individuals. For example, an obese cannot run as fast as a normal healthy person.
Low Back Pain – Trauma to your back can make your lower back pain a lot.
Neurological Disease
Carpel Tunnel Syndrome – When the median nerve gets more often pressed or squeezed at the wrist. The median nerve is that which runs from the forearm into the hand. Its function is to control the sensations to the palm side of the thumb and fingers, impulse to small hand muscles that makes the fingers and thumb move.
Cardiovascular Diseases
Congestive Heart Failure – A condition where the heart fails to pump enough amount of blood to reach the other organs of your body.
Enlarged Heart – The increase in the size of your heart caused due to thickening of the heart muscles.
Cor Pulmonale – Also called as a right heart failure. Cor Pulmonale is a disease caused due to respiratory disorders leading to change in the structure and function of the right ventricle of the heart.
Pulmonary Embolism – When the pulmonary artery or one of its branches are blocked due to a blood clot, amniotic fluid, clumped tumor cells, fat, or injected talc, it causes difficulty in breathing. Usually patient’s with such disorders experience pain while they breathe as well as circulatory instability and can also lead to death.
Varicose Veins – Enlargement in your veins or twisted veins that can be bad for your lower part of the body because of excess pressure on these veins.
Any issues caused within your heart or its pulmonary blood vessels can be very dangerous. Blockages within your blood vessels can be dealt by using angioplasty. Cost of angioplasty depends on various factors such as, number of blockages, hospital setting, the city where the hospital is and some other factors. You can find the cost of angioplasty in various cities in India here.
Respiratory Disease
Obstructive Sleep Apnea – This is a sleep disorder in which you experience pausing when you are breathing during your sleep. Here, every breathless time lasts long enough to miss one or more breaths which repeatedly occur while you are asleep.
Pickwickian Syndrome – A combination of severe obesity with obstructive sleep apnea (causing hypoxia) and hypercapnia. This combination results into marked daytime somnolence and chronic respiratory acidosis.
Dyspnea – In simple terms, it is called as Short of Breath (SoB). Dyspnea is perceived trouble in breathing or pain while breathing.
Hypoventilation Syndrome – This occurs when a obese person do not breathe enough while sleeping. This is mainly due to a defect in the control of your brain over breathing and obesity against the wall of your chest, making it hard for that individual to take deep breath. This concludes, that your blood has too much of carbon dioxide but not enough oxygen.
Asthma – A chronic disease that affects the passageways that carry air in and out of your lungs.
Psychological Diseases
Body Dysmorphic Disorder – A mental disorder that includes a disturbed image of your body.
Depression – Intensely sad of being disruptive to one’s social functioning and performing daily activities.
On a note of conclusion, the above mention diseases can occur due to obesity. You must always keep in track about your current health condition and compare it to your ideal one. If your suffering from obesity, pick up an easy weight loss option. But, first learn about all the important facts on losing weight. Do not fast more often that can make your body weak. Losing weight must be about losing calories. Check on how you deal with your metabolism and keep a control on all these factors to discard obesity.
