Obesity – A Serious Health Hazard

In the United States, nearly a third of the nation is obese. The proportion of obese adults in Britain doubled in ten years. And in Japan obesity is becoming common.


Increasing numbers of children are heavier than they should be. Some 4.7 million American youths between the age of 6 and 17 are severely overweight, while some 20 percent of Canadian children are obese. In recant years childhood obesity has shown a threefold increase in Singapore.


In some countries, being big from weight gain is viewed as evidence of prosperity and health.


One thing you should know is that obesity is a serious disease. The following are the health risks of being overweight.


Heart Disease: A study of 115,000 female American nurses, who were followed for 16 years, showed that when adults gain even five to eight kilograms, it results in a higher risk of heart disease.


Cancer: The above study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine of September 14, 1995, indicated that one third of cancer deaths and one half of cardiovascular deaths were due to overweight. And the American Cancer Society says that those who are “significantly overweight” (40 percent or more above ideal weight) “have a higher cancer risk.”


Hypertension: According to a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) of May 22/29, 1996, “78% of hypertension in men and 65% in women can be directly attributed to obesity.”


High Blood Pressure: Overweight youths suffer from high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol levels, and pre-diabetic conditions. And they often become obese adults. The New York Times, using data published in the British medical journal The Lancet, reported that “people who were fat as children died earlier and suffered for more diseases at far younger ages than the general public.”


Diabetes: It is not just putting on extra weight that is a danger; the distribution of body fat also affects the risk of disease. Those who carry excess fat in the abdomen are actually at higher risk than those who carry more weight in the hips and thighs. Fat in the stomach area is associated with increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, breast cancer, and uterine cancer.


Therefore, if you are obese, you need to take control of your life now and join any effective weightloss program available to burn some fats fast.