The numbers of people suffering from obesity has risen dramatically over the last decade. Most often the reasons behind this are poor diet and exercise, but some medical issues can be at the cause as well. With obesity come many health complications. To learn more about obesity complications read on below and help protect your self from these problems.
The first of the many medical issues that can come up when you are obese is high blood pressure. When a person is obese they are not able to be very physically active, and the result of this is the excess caloric intake turns to fatty tissue. This excess fatty tissue will need oxygen and nutrients from your blood like every other part of your body. As the fatty tissue builds up, the need for more and more oxygen and nutrients will cause more blood to flow through your arteries, which in turn will put more pressure on the artery walls.
Furthermore, excess weight gain will increase your insulin levels as your body works overtime to match your extra energy (caloric intake), and this extra insulin will cause you to retain sodium and water in your body. The extra sodium and water then in turn increases your blood volume. The final result of all these issues is high blood pressure. What’s more, the extra insulin made by your body can also cause diabetes in both men and women, and even gestational diabetes during pregnancy.
Obesity is one of the number one causes of type 2 diabetes. The reason for this is because your body is unable to maintain balanced levels of insulin and glucose (blood sugar), it can quickly become resistant to insulin, thus causing diabetes. Moreover, the excess fat that gets stored in you body will cause you to have issues with abnormal blood fats, or rather, high cholesterol.
Even for people with normal body weights, eating the wrong food can cause high cholesterol. The types of food are those high in saturated fats like red meat, fried foods, and other greasy snacks. These foods not only cause high cholesterol, but also a leading factor in obesity causing a viscous cycle. What’s more, obesity is also connected with low amounts of high-density lipoproteins (good cholesterol), and high amounts of triglycerides which are fats found in most foods and in your body.
What can happen with these abnormal levels of blood fats is called atherosclerosis. This is a condition that causes your arteries to become filled with fatty deposits which can lead to artery disease, stroke, an in some cases, it can lead to coronary artery disease which causes angina and sometimes heart attacks. And the reasons for all of these problems stems from damaging the arteries. The arteries become weakened, clogged, and even blocked completely.
Other obesity complications are osteoarthritis and sleep apnea. With osteoarthritis, the excess weight gain puts added pressure on joints like your knees, lower back, and hips. This extra pressure then wears away cartilage causing much pain and stiffness. And this added weight can often form around your neck as well. When this happens, it can affect your airways while you sleep. It becomes sleep apnea when your airways become squeezed from the extra weight, causing your upper airways to become blocked, and then cause you to snore badly and in some cases, stop your breathing all together causing you to wake up.
There are even a few types of cancer that are directly associated with obesity. These included colon, rectum, esophagus, kidney, breast, and prostate cancer. And obesity is commonly associated with fatty liver disease and cirrhosis of the liver. This happens because the liver gets scarred and inflamed due to a build-up of fat in the liver. What’s more, such excessive weight often causes gallbladder disease because of the added cholesterol that gets deposited in your gallbladder.
As seen above, obesity can have severe health issues attached to it, but it does not just attack your physical health. Not only are you at risk for this list of life threatening diseases, but the pain and discomfort associated with obesity can be debilitating enough, not to mention the social and emotional aspects caused by obesity.
When you are obese, just sitting comfortably in a chair can be almost impossible, and can often cause breathing problems as your fat gets pushed upwards when you sit. Furthermore, it can be hard to build relationships, get jobs, and just plain fit in when you are obese. If you or someone you know is obese, contact your doctor to find out how to help the problem and begin to live again.