EFFECTS OF OVER WEIGHT ON YOUR HEALTH

Do You Care About Your Health? And Learn How To Protect Yourself



Why is the medical community always harping at us that we should lose weight? What's the big deal?

The "big deal" is that obesity has become a national epidemic and is costing billions of dollars per year and creating heartache and chaos in the lives of most Americans. Two thirds of adults and more than half of children are overweight or obese.

The effects of smoking account for the most deaths due to a preventable cause; obesity comes in at a close second. Let's look at a few of the chronic diseases that can be caused by obesity:

- Diabetes. This is a disease of the metabolism caused by a disordered insulin-sugar relationship. Improperly managed diabetes can result in heart attack, poor circulation to legs and feet, blindness, chronic burning sensation in hands and feet, kidney failure, and many other unpleasant disease entities.

- Heart disease: Fat is not confined to the parts of the body we see. Fat also accumulates around vital organs, such as the heart. Fat clogs the blood vessels which can cause heart attack or stroke.

- Obesity can cause high blood pressure which further contributes to heart disease.

- Fatty liver. Each cell in the liver, as in other organs, contributes to the proper functioning of the unit as a whole. If healthy liver cells are "butted out" by fat cells, function is impaired. The liver has hundreds of jobs to do for the maintenance of health. If the liver isn't "happy", the rest of the body won't be happy either.

- Sleep disorders. Sleep apnea is often a condition of "collateral damage" resulting from obesity. When the neck is encumbered with too much fat, it can put pressure on the airway causing breathing to stop dozens, or even hundreds, of times during sleep. In time, this condition may raise the blood pressure and cause heart disease.

- Arthritis and other joint conditions. The joints are designed to carry a reasonable amount of weight. They are resilient and springy and keep us from having pain from bone-on-bone friction. Over a period of time, excess weight strains the cushioning discs between bones and wears it away causing profound and constant pain, worsened with movement.

- Metabolic syndrome. This is a combination of several conditions: abdominal obesity (belly fat), high blood sugar, hypertension, high triglycerides, and low "good" cholesterol (HDL).

These are only a few of the disorders that may result from being overweight or obese. When we take into consideration the cosmetic and low self-esteem issues associated with excess weight, we can see quickly that this is not a condition to be taken lightly.

Don't get discouraged because you have 20 pounds to lose...or 50 or 80 or a hundred or more. You can get it off. It will take time but the time is going to pass anyway. You may as well be heading down the road toward optimal health rather than the wrong way which can be a total disaster.

Start today. You can do it! I know you can!

Excess weight can cause some serious diseases. If you're serious about your health, I'll help you.