Obesity - How It Impacts Your Health?

Obesity is a serious condition in which excess body fat builds up and causes an unfavorable effect on the body, becoming increasingly overweight. Its condition is one of the most preventable conditions to cause death. Obesity increases the risk of having other serious health problems and decreases life expectancy. Some problems that may arise to having obesity is type 2 diabetes, heart disease, certain cancers, trouble breathing while sleeping, and osteoarthritis. This condition is often caused by eating excessive fatty foods, lack in exercise, and even genetics.

The foremost treatment for obesity is a combination of exercise and dieting. Often times when an obese person diets, it lasts for a very short term. This is because in order to manage obesity, a healthy diet needs to be applied permanently for the rest of their life, which is usually broken. The diet is broken up into four groups: low carbohydrate, low fat, low calorie, and very low calorie. Physical activity helps the muscle in the body to absorb energy taken from glycogen and fat. Because obese people contain large muscles, by running, walking, jogging, etc., they are reducing body fat and turning it into muscles.

Medications can also help to treat obesity. There are two FDA approved anti-obesity prescriptions that can be used long term: Orlistat and Sibutramine. Orlistat decreases fat absorbed in the intestines by restraining lipase from the pancreas. Sibutramine associates with the brain to switch off neurotransmitter norepinephrine, dopamine, and serotonin. This helps to decrease appetite, therefore enabling the patient to control portion size. If the condition becomes extremely severe due to incompleteness of following dietary and physical health advice, than surgery may become necessary. Bariatric surgery is surgery used specifically for obese people. It relies on several factors: the amount of volume in the stomach that must be reduced and how much the bowl must be reduced when coming in contact with food.

Obesity can start at anytime, but usually during childhood. How healthy a child is and becomes starts in the home. Even if obesity runs in the family, by teaching your children the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, you can prevent them from struggling with it. Being obese can lead to depression and need of psychological counseling. Children especially are often times bullied due to their overweight appearance and suffer, leading to increased appetite, especially when dealing with an adolescent. It is during the teenage years that parents often lose control of what their children eat. Not only does an obese child have to deal with the usual teenage hormonal problems, but also with their overweight appearance. They become more dependent on food as a comforter and are too depressed to exercise.

By making sure that your child gets a proper dietary breakfast, lunch, and dinner, obesity can be avoided, along with other conditions that result from an unhealthy diet and the lack of exercise. Even if you are not obese and it does not run in the family, remember either way following this advice will benefit by prolonging your life.