THE DOCTOR IS IN
OP/ ED BY DR. ADIL MANZOOR
You certainly may have noticed, but there are more overweight people in the United States than there are people of normal weight. It’s not even close. According to the CDC, 74% of American adults are overweight. In other words, for every ten people you see, expect seven to be overweight. That’s… not so good, but it gets worse.
The CDC also states that 42% of Americans are obese. To translate that to raw numbers, that’s 142 million obese Americans. For context, obesity is having a BMI over 30, while being overweight is having a BMI over 25. For even more context, BMI means body mass index, and it is widely accepted as the best metric for assessing weight. BMI is calculated by dividing the weight of a person (in kilograms) by the square of their height (in meters). You can save yourself the stress of fighting your phone calculator by using online BMI calculators.
Despite the sheer number of overweight people in the United States today (FYI, around 249 million people), many people are self-conscious about their weight and make plans to hit the gym sometimes. Do they actually follow through with these plans? Well, that’s another story, but there’s no debate that a lot of overweight people know they are overweight and should lose weight.
Interestingly, many people don’t even know they are overweight. For instance, if you are a 30-year-old woman who is 5’4 and 150 pounds, you have a BMI of 25.7 and are overweight. Honestly, it is not until many start struggling to fit into their clothes and seeing their belly massively protruding that they get the hint that they are overweight. There is no such confusion for obese people.
Using the same 30-year-old, 5’4 woman, she will need a weight of 175.5 pounds to have a BMI over 30 and officially be obese. At this point, it’s impossible to miss the excess weight she has put on. Now, this woman may feel even more pressure than normal to hit the gym and work out more, with a lot of that pressure coming from how society views her. However, there are much worse implications to being obese than what society thinks.
According to several scientific studies over the years, obesity is strongly associated with multiple chronic conditions. Note that chronic conditions are conditions that last for three months or longer, requiring ongoing medical attention and often being unresponsive to curative medications. In other words, you will very likely have to manage these conditions for the rest of your life if you have them. Let’s consider the link between obesity and chronic conditions, then.
For starters, obesity can lead to insulin resistance (a condition where the body cells no longer respond to the hormone insulin), causing blood sugar levels to skyrocket and stay high. If the sugar levels remain consistently high, the individual can develop type 2 diabetes, a chronic condition that can cause damage to nerves and blood vessels, heart attacks, stroke, eye problems, and kidney issues. Then, there’s a condition known as metabolic syndrome, which comprises a wide range of other conditions like diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and an increased risk of cardiovascular mortality.
Second on our list are cardiovascular diseases. They include coronary heart disease, congestive heart failure, stroke, hypertension, angina pectoris, and myocardial infarction. The main ways obesity contributes to cardiovascular diseases is by increasing blood pressure and causing an accumulation of fat and cholesterol in the arteries. When fat and cholesterol get too much in the bloodstream, as is the case in obesity, they may form a buildup on the walls of the arteries known as plaque. The plaque can cause arteries to narrow, restricting blood flow, and this plaque may also burst, causing injury to the blood vessels and a subsequent blood clot.
Furthermore, obesity is associated with musculoskeletal problems like arthritis and physical disability. I mean, this makes a lot of sense – if there is too much weight on the bones and joints of the body, it is only a matter of time before these supporting skeletal structures start to weaken and cause mobility issues. The hip and knee are two areas that are particularly affected among people with obesity.
Yet another chronic condition is cancer. The higher a person’s BMI, the higher their risk of cancer, as well as a higher risk of dying from cancer. Some of the cancers that have been associated with obesity include throat, colon and rectum, pancreas, kidney, liver, gallbladder, and blood cancers.
Other chronic conditions that have been associated with obesity include gallbladder disease, acute pancreatitis, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, obstructive sleep apnea (upper airway obstruction during sleep), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and, of course, depression (because why not!).
At this point, it should be crystal clear that obesity will always be associated with different health conditions and a much higher risk of death. Therefore, losing weight must be the primary focus of obese individuals. Note also that any weight loss plan must include dietary changes and increased physical activity – with emphasis on the “must.” Speak to your healthcare provider if you need more help losing weight.
As always, stay safe.
This article was written by Dr. Adil Manzoor, DO, a Board-Certified Internist; Board certified Pediatrician who works as a Hospitalist and Emergency Room Physician. He is also the current President of Garden State Street Medicine, a non-profit organization whose sole purpose is to provide free preventive and acute urgent care services for the homeless. He is also the co-founder of his own unique medical practice, Mobile Medicine NJ; House Call Doctors. He is also currently pursuing an Executive MBA and a Master’s of Science in Healthcare Leadership at Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management and the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences.
References
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10302691/
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2879283/#:~:text=Obesity%20is%20a%20significant%20risk,%2C%20sleep%20apnea%2C%20and%20depression.
- https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/adult-obesity-facts/index.html#:~:text=Many%20U.S.%20adults%20have%20obesity&text=This%20means%20that%20more%20than,from%204.7%25%20to%209.2%25.
- https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/obesity-overweight.htm
- https://cura4u.com/blog/link-between-obesity-and-chronic-health-conditions
