Obesity is a bane affecting millions of Americans and is now considered an epidemic by many health experts. While you may be struggling to lose weight and putting in your best effort to adopt a healthy lifestyle, shedding even a few pounds becomes harder with increasing weight, as the body’s metabolism and appetite have now adapted themselves to excess food intake.
Knowing the adverse and often fatal consequences of avoiding medical help to deal with obesity helps to strengthen a person’s resolve to lose weight. So here are ten reasons why you should commit yourself to a strict weight-loss regimen at the earliest.
- Heart disease: Being overweight has long been established as a risk factor for a number of heart-related ailments. When you are overweight or obese, your heart needs to work harder to pump blood through your body. Additionally, the blood cholesterol levels of obese people are often several times higher than normal, further increasing their risk of getting a heart attack.
- Hypertension: Excess body weight exerts the heart and causes more pressure on vessels transporting blood through the body. As a result, obese individuals tend to have higher-than-normal heart rate and are prone to developing high blood pressure over time. This in turn raises their risk of heart disease and stroke.
- Joint pains: Obesity is at the root of several bone- and joint-related ailments, including arthritis, chronic muscle pain, and loss of mobility due to degeneration of bones in the knee, hip joint and back. Additionally, supporting the extra body weight causes undue pressure on the legs and feet, often causing the feet to pain and swell.
- Reproductive problems: Women who are overweight or obese have been shown to have difficulty conceiving. Often the first advice a gynecologist gives to an obese woman is to reduce their body weight to be able to conceive and sustain a healthy pregnancy without the complications of gestational diabetes, hypertension, risk of premature labor and other issues. Similarly, obese men can develop infertility as a side effect of being overweight.
- Mental health: Being obese makes life difficult not only for one’s own self but also for family and friends. This often takes a toll on the individual’s mental health, causing low self-esteem, frustration and anger from dependence on others, loss of will to get better, and even depression.
In fact, unlike its physiological side effects, the psychological effects of obesity often go unnoticed until they become too obvious to loved ones. - Diabetes mellitus: A known side effect of obesity, diabetes mellitus, or Type 2 diabetes, plagues millions of obese Americans today, making their journey to weight loss even more difficult. Experts say that obese persons are 50 times more likely to develop high blood sugar and eventually diabetes mellitus. High blood sugar is a known cause of several other health conditions, including heart disease, kidney disease, stroke, and loss of sight.
- Kidney disease: Kidney failure is an extreme condition that often stems from excess body weight. In obese individuals, critical organs such as the heart, kidneys, liver and the digestive system have to work harder to keep the individual alive, which over time can lead to the failure of these organs to perform life-critical body functions.
- Fatty liver: Obese people tend to eat a lot of fat-rich and unhealthy foods, which results in the gradual accumulation of fat on the liver, leading to a condition known as fatty liver disease. This inflames the liver and impairs its functioning, and if left untreated, it can lead to severe liver problems and even liver failure.
- Cancer: People often find it difficult to understand the connection between cancer and obesity; however, several studies have indicated obesity as a contributing factor to cancers of the stomach, liver, pancreas, gallbladder, kidney, cervix, breast, uterus and colon.
- Brain stroke: As blood circulation in obese individuals is highly compromised due to conditions such as hypertension, high blood sugar and high cholesterol, there is an increased risk of formation of clots and reduced blood supply to the brain, which can lead to stroke.
Aside from these, there are several other adverse effects of obesity that are being currently studied by scientists across the world. If you’re struggling with obesity and are looking for a permanent solution that will help you ward off excess body weight and place you on the path to a fulfilling and happier life, consult the seasoned obesity experts at Bay Bariatrics, a leading weight-loss surgery center serving communities in Oregon for nearly two decades.