Healthytalk8 Obesity or overweight is a disease where person body fat is more that interact with health and it influence by many factors.
According to a 2020 report, over 2 billion adults (39% of the global population) were overweight.
2015-16 national nutrition monitoring bureau report says, about 44% of urban women are either overweight or obese.
But studies say girls are thinner than boys but upon reaching adulthood more women were found to be obese compared to men.
According to a WHO report, Asian nations like India and China have seen a more than 25% increase in overweight (1).
Overweight Vs Obesity
Contents
Do you know – Obesity and overweight have some basic differences?
Obesity is a situation, where a person receives an alarm that your health is now in danger. It is an extreme situation.
On the other hand, being overweight is a situation, where a person can rectify it.
Learn More – Obesity, And Pregnancy, Is Any Relation B/W Them, Risk
Reasons
Obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg) among adult males in the past few years, has slowly become a worldwide epidemic.
Many reasons cause obesity, which also increases the risk of obesity including:
Genes contain our DNA (it contains all the vital information to build and maintain a body), and if genes don’t work properly can cause diseases.
Some studies suggest that genes also play a vital role in all individuals, and also have found that BMI is 25–40% heritable (2) (3).
Gender also plays a role in obesity, women (BMI ≥35 kg/m2) are more prone to obesity than men (4).
Research has shown a relationship between certain foods and obesity is clear interaction b/w diet, genes, and obesity.
Genetics can directly cause obesity in specific disorders such as Bardet-Biedl syndrome and Prader-Willi syndrome (5)
But, some people who carry these “obesity genes” do not become overweight, due to being more involved in healthy lifestyles (6).
Too much sleep
A study showed women who slept 5 hours or less, compared to women who slept 7 hours had a 15% more chance of becoming obese (7).
However, some studies suggest a link between short sleeping and obesity, while others show no link.
During night levels of ghrelin (a hormone that is responsible for hunger) are increased in obese patients (8).
However, one study showed that treatment with continuous positive airway pressure can reduce the ghrelin level in patients with sleep apnea.
Unhealthy diet
This is one of the main reasons for obesity because unhealthy food contains lots of sugar, calories, and fat, which causes many diseases.
Due to poor diet, obese kids or adults also may feel conscious about their self-image and feel bad about themselves.
Studies have examined the relationship b/w sugar consumption and weight gain and it is a factor for putting on excess weight.
Unhealthy food such as:
- Red meat
- Sugary drinks
- Snack foods include foods such as chips, baked goods, and candy
- Processed food
- Fried food
In the 21st century, the trend of unhealthy food has increased significantly, due to which the risk of obesity also increases in people.
But you don’t need to become fat by eating unhealthy food, many people remain thin even after eating junk food.
Too low physical activity or no movement
Not doing physical activity not only leads to obesity but also contributes to muscle soreness, heart disease, back pain, type II diabetes, etc.
A study indicates that overweight and obesity were significantly allied with poorer active movement in children (9)
Researchers studying national health survey results from 1988 to 2010, found huge boosts in obesity and inactivity, but not in the number of calories intake (10).
So eating a healthy diet along with exercise can reduce several diseases.
Diabetes
Research suggests that obese people are more prone to type II diabetes than non-diabetic individuals (11).
Some research reveals that body mass index has a strong relationship to diabetes and insulin resistance (12).
However, research does not fully understand the link b/w diabetes and obesity, so more research is needed.
Learn More – Natural Ways To Prevent Pre-Diabetes And Diabetes
Medicines intake
Certain medicines can lead to diabetes, and where dosage can also be allied with the risk of developing diabetes.
The same evidence shows that thiazides combined with beta-blockers may increase the risk of diabetes than either drug alone (13)
Long-term medicine intake may interact with your hormone causing side effects such as headache, high sugar level, overweight, etc.
Drugs that induce diabetes include:
- Beta-blockers
- Thiazide diuretics
- Sulfonylureas
- Tricyclic Antidepressants drugs (13)
Overall, several factors can easily trigger your BMI apart from genes including unhealthy food, not doing exercise, and medical concerns.
Overweight effect on the body
There is much evidence showing that obesity’s effects on the body include:
- Cancers
- type II diabetes
- cardiovascular disease
- hypertension
- stroke
- coronary artery disease
Also, Heart Failure, asthma, chronic back pain, osteoarthritis, stomach issues, and even death are seen in extreme cases (14), (15).
Effect on mental health
Mental disorders can arise from low self-esteem, mood disorders, quality of life, communication problems and so on (16) (17).
Some studies have indicated that obesity in both genders enhances the chance of low libido, which is a sign of poor mental health (18).
Check Out – Music Can Treat Mental and Physical Illness
Diabetes
When our blood sugar level reaches a high level we get to see a lot of complications inside our body.
Obesity enhances the risk of diabetes. Research showed that obese people were the major risk factor for diabetes during a 14-year follow-up.
Research on women reveals that for women with a 5 to 7.9 kg weight gain, the close risk for diabetes was 1.9.
And for those with an 8 to 10.9 kg weight gain, the relative risk was 2.7 (19).
One more study on diabetic patients reveals that weight loss significantly reduces the risk of developing diabetes (20).
Compared to men, women are more prone to increased BMI, which also raises the risk of developing type II diabetes (21).
Diabetes can attract other diseases such as heart disease, stroke, and COVID-19.
Impact on spiritual health
Some studies have shown a relationship b/w emotional eating and spiritual well-being (22).
Heart attack
Obese is one of the common reasons for heart attack due to fat on arteries that block the arteries (carry blood to the heart).
Also, high blood pressure is also a common cause of heart attack, and obese individuals are more prone to the risk of developing this.
In 2016, India reported 63% of the total deaths due to (Non-communicable diseases), of which 27% were due to (cardiovascular disease).
Framingham Heart Study reveal that obesity raises the risk of irregular heartbeat. Among 5282 participants where 55% were women (23).
Learn More – Yoga For Healthy Heart | Food To Eat And Avoid.
Low bone Density
Being overweight may enhance the risk of getting osteoarthritis by putting extra pressure on joints and cartilage (24)
Osteoarthritis is a common joint pain or long-lasting health problem that causes pain, swelling, and reduced motion in your joints.
Also induces bone loss and increases the risk of fracture in older people, and after 30 bone density starts decreasing.
There is also evidence that the higher adiposity in obesity is associated with a lower rate of bone formation (25)
Difficulty in breathing
Extra fat can harder to breathe, which can affect your sleep, while walking or jogging, etc.
So make sure to start working on your, physical activities like running, and resistance exercises are the best way to lose excessive weight.
Check Out – Breathing Exercises To Increase Lung Capacity
Low testosterone level
There is a lot of evidence proof, which says obesity is one of the main reasons for low T levels, which also affects female hormones (26).
The fact that obese men have lower testosterone compared to healthy men has been recognized for more than 30 years.
But low testosterone can occur due to other many reasons such as:
- Drinking excessive alcohol, or tobacco
- Lack of sleeping
- Lack of enough protein, and vitamins cause low T hormone at a young age.
- Using illegal drugs
- Being overweight, and being underweight according to your height, and age.
- Stress directly affects the immune system and testosterone.
- Injury
- Diseases like liver disease, cancer, metabolic disorder.
- Consuming medicine for a very long time
Clinical studies suggest that the treatment of obese men medicines can promote testosterone levels and restore fertility.
More studies show that low T levels can be increased by losing weight and testosterone therapy.
Other effect of obesity on health
- Decrease quality of life
- Leads to cancer
- Cardiovascular Disease
Down Line
Obese people are more at risk of several diseases like cardiovascular disease, cancer, and even increased mortality rates.
By losing weight through more enhance in exercise like running, and resistance exercise individuals can reduce the risk of diseases.
