The accumulation of excess and abnormal fat in the body which may harm your health in various ways is defined as being overweight or obese. The World Health Organisation (W.H.O.) defines an individual as being overweight when their Body Mass Index (B.M.I.) is over 25 and obese when it is over 30. The prevalence of obesity has exponentially increased in the last 4 decades. The prevalence of overweight and obesity in India is increasing faster than the world average. About 15% of the global population is estimated to be obese.
World Obesity Day 2023: Know the adverse effect of obesity on your health
1. Obesity raises the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke – the two leading causes of death worldwide. The chances of diabetes also increase with obesity and long-term complications of diabetes are also more prevalent in overweight or obese diabetics. These may include blindness, limb amputation and renal (kidney) failure.
2. The degeneration of joints occurs in an accelerated manner due to obesity. Osteo-arthritis can set in earlier and be more painful and incapacitating in obese patients. Decreased mobility can further worsen obesity sending the patient in a downward clinical spiral.
3. Obesity is also a risk factor for many kinds of cancers. These include cancers of the uterus, kidney, pancreas, liver, oesophagus, and others.
4. Sleep apnoea is often seen in obese individuals. This is linked to an elevated risk of hypertension and cardiac events. Respiratory issues like asthma are more severe and respond less to treatment in obese patients.
5. Being overweight reduces the rate of healing of wounds and increases recovery periods after surgery. The doses of many conventional medicines are proportionate to body weight, hence higher body weight may mean higher doses increasing the risk of side effects of medication.
A healthy diet and active lifestyle can help prevent obesity
Therefore, it is safe to say that being overweight should not be looked at as a merely cosmetic issue and its mitigation should feature as a priority in public health systems and for individuals. As in most illnesses, prevention should be your goal. A rapidly increasing BMI or just bodyweight should serve as a warning sign and it is the need to actively attempt to control this before it reaches overweight or obese levels.
Simple steps like understanding the body’s needs when consuming food and beverages may bring the realisation that you are putting far more into your bodies than you need. Small but persistent steps towards increasing physical activity can bring in compounded rewards in weight loss which tend to stick rather than the transient loss brought about by abrupt and drastic changes in diet or frantic exercise regimens which are usually continued only for short periods at a time.
