How Obesity Affects Your Skin

August 25, 2014

How Obesity Affects Your Skin – Prevention Tips

Obesity has great influence on your skin negatively. Obese people may not reach some parts of their body when cleaning and this can lead to infections

Getting that good looking body size is not only essential for your general body health but also has great influence in the improvement of your appearance. The dangers of obesity are no secret as it causes health conditions like raising the risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and other life-threatening conditions. Besides these obesity also has a way of affecting your skin negatively, for poor diet will bring in trouble from the inside which eventually affects the skin on the surface. Excess consumption of sugar and fats creates an overproduction of sebum, or oil, in your skin, which can lead to breakouts. Keeping your skin clean but not overly clean and having a balanced diet with plenty of fiber and protein can help.

In an attempt of trying to eliminate obesity, you may want to ride on the weight-loss rollercoaster a decision which can cause another undesired skin conditions like stretch marks. They result when skin can’t keep up with the expansion of weight gain or the contraction of rapid weight loss. Many times, stretch marks can be reduced in appearance by lotions, scrubs and other products, but you can avoid them and other unattractive skin conditions by staying at a healthy weight and eating a balanced diet.

An obese person runs the risk of developing skin problems. The bigger a person is, the more skin he has, and this increases the chance of issues. Obesity is widely recognized as an epidemic. The prevalence has significantly increased among the US population over the past 30 years. Approximately 119 million Americans, nearly two thirds of adult Americans, are either overweight or obese. Recent research estimates that between one fourth and one third of American adults are obese, and one in six children and adolescents is overweight, however the impact of obesity on the skin has received minimal attention. Obesity is related to a number of effects on skin properties and how it functions, including the skin’s barrier function, sebaceous glands and sebum production, sweat glands, lymphatics, collagen structure and function, wound healing, microcirculation and macro-circulation, and subcutaneous fat. Insulin and certain growth factors altered in obesity and metabolic syndrome also influence on the skin physiology too. To make a more comprehensible classification, the skin problems can be:

How Obesity Affects Your Skin – Skin diseases directly caused by obesity

Acantosis nigricans – The most common manifestation of obesity characterized by a velvety dark colored skin especially on the armpits, groins, neck, elbows and knees.
Skin tags – Another very common manifestation characterized by tiny pedunculated warty, soft, brown growths most commonly seen on the neck, the axillae and groin.
Keratosis pilaris -“Goose bumps”, “spiny pimples” or “acne” lesions on the extensor parts of arms and thighs, also related to dry prone skin.
Hyperandrogenism – Increased production of male hormones by the excess fat which in turn produces acne, hidradenitis, male pattern baldness and/or increased hair growth especially in the face of women.
Stretch marks -They begin with a red phase before turning violet, then finally becoming white and depressed. They are the result of a very high tensionated skin.
Adipose dolorosa: Painful fat tumors more commonly in postmenopausal women.

Skin diseases aggravated but not directly caused by obesity

Lymphedema – The impedance of lymphatic flow which presents as initially soft, pitting edema most commonly beginning in the feet and spreading upwards.
Psoriasis – Red lesions with silver scale, most commonly located on the scalp, elbows, knees and back especially in patients with metabolic syndrome.
Chronic venous insufficiency – Due to increased intra-abdominal pressure found in obese patients causing an oppositional force to venous blood return from the lower extremities.
Plantar hyperkeratosis or calluses – Most commonly as a horseshoe callous due to higher plantar pressures during walking and standing.
Infections – Fungal or bacterial due to increased occlusion, moisture, heat and/or macerated skin especially in the skinfolds of abdomen and breasts.
Hidradenitis suppurativa: Abscesses and scarring tracts due to inflammation in the armpits and groins.

Skin care is important in general; however, in an obese person it is of even more importance due to these factors:

How Obesity Affects Your Skin – Hygiene

Obese individuals may have problems with keeping high standard of hygiene occasioned by large skin circumference of skin to clean and difficulties in reaching certain parts of the body when bathing. The consistency of this habit may lead to bacteria growth and infection thereby causing injuries to the skin. Very extreme obese people may need assistance when bathing to avoid instances of such infections or bacterial growth.

How Obesity Affects Your Skin – Moisture

An overweight person has more problems than a smaller person with issues such as excess moisture and perspiration.
Moisture in body folds can cause bacteria and fungi to grow, and also sweat can become an irritant.
These can then cause skin rashes and infections like intertrigo.
To avoid this, an obese individual should keep the skin dry by using an anti-perspirant and even use it in his skin folds.
It is important for him to keep his groin area dry.
Urine on the skin from inadequate hygiene can cause a rash.
The individual with this issue may benefit from using a barrier cream.
In certain areas where the skin becomes too dry like the legs, a moisturizer is suggested and used as needed.

How Obesity Affects Your Skin – Friction

The folds of the skin sometimes run against themselves in overweight people. When this happens, the skin becomes irritated. This can cause blisters and chapping. Many individuals believe that powder can help with this, but powders actually have an abrasive effect. Rather, an obese person should use oil- or silicone-based products to minimize friction.

How Obesity Affects Your Skin – Skin Breaks

An obese person may develop breaks in the skin especially on very dry or hyperkeratosis skin. Anytime the skin has a wound, infection can occur. This risk is increased due to the circulation problems and possible diabetes of an overweight person. Such an individual needs to inspect the skin regularly and if needed with assistance by someone else. If there are any problems or concerns, consult your physician to aid in treatment.

From the discussion obviously there is a growing numbers of various skin conditions, therefore it is important that patients must work with experts like doctor Dalal Akoury who is also the founder of AWAREmed Health and Resource Center where people suffering from obesity and weight related conditions are treated in the most natural way by focusing on Neuroendocrine Restoration (NER) to reinstate normality through realization of the oneness of Spirit, Mind, and Body, Unifying the threesome into ONE. Besides this you can also reach out for doctor Akoury for any other skin care concerns you may be having and she will be there for you.

How Obesity Affects Your Skin – Prevention Tips

Effects of Obesity before Pregnancy

August 2, 2014

Effects of Obesity before Pregnancy – What you need to know

Obesity is never friendly for pregnancy, if you’re planning to get pregnant you need to seek for help to lose weight

The issue of weight gain is developing in a very high speed and it is becoming the concern of all healthcare providers globally. It has in the recent past become the obvious metabolic disease and this has led the World Health Organization (WHO) to consider obesity as one of the most serious global health problems of the 21st century. It is not a simple thing for the WHO to list obesity in this ranking and so we all have a duty to share and make contributions toward bring this condition to some degree of control. Therefore, what is this condition called obesity? By definition obesity is a health condition in which the accumulation of excessive body fat to an extent that is highly likely to impair health and increase morbidity and mortality. The most commonly use method of measuring obesity is body mass index (BMI) where an individual will be considered to be overweight if their BMI is between 25 and 30 kg/m²while those with more than 30 kg/m²are considered to be obese. In this article we are going to interrogate the effects of obesity in women who are planning to get pregnant in the future, in other words the focus of this article will be obesity before pregnancy. As we get into this discussion, I want to introduce to you one of my cherished professional dealing with issues of weight gain in the most natural way, I am talking about doctor Dalal Akoury who has been in this practice for well over 20 years and we will be making reference of her practice from time to time so that you can call her to attend to your situation.

According to WHO the prevalence of obesity in pregnancy cut across 1.8 to 25.3% with effects of obesity before and during pregnancy constituting a major risk factor for both maternal and fetal complications. While appreciating that children born of obese mothers may become obese in their childhood and develops metabolic syndrome in their adulthood, it is possible to address some of the issues relating to obesity during pregnancy since at this time mothers will be more willing to accept certain changes in their lifestyle like a well-balanced diet and bit of indulgence in physical activities, practicing this will certainly improve the fetal health. It therefore goes without saying that a well-balanced body weight at this point is very important, we will continue with this in our next article but for now let us get back to the discussion of obesity before pregnancy.

Are you planning to get Pregnant?

It is very essential that women planning to get pregnant make effort to maintain normal body weight because being obese or even being underweight has negative effects on pregnancy, these two conditions can cause a woman to have a reduced fertility in all dynamics that is to say when observed in both natural conception and conception achieved by assisted reproduction techniques (ARTs). In many instances when subfertility is observed in obese women, it is always occasioned partially due to the decrease in frequency or complete absence of ovulation.

The dominant cause of anovulation is polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), which is characterized by central visceral obesity in 40% of the cases. Moreover, in a wider context of metabolic disorders,

Low concentration of serum
High-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol
High concentration of triglycerides
Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol
Increased concentrations of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) tend to co-exist.

All these metabolic derangements increase the risk of developing:

Arterial hypertension
Coronary heart disease and
Thrombosis

In addition, hyperinsulinemia promotes the production of testosterone and Δ4-androstendione from the theca cells in the ovary and results in a condition of hyperandrogenemic anovulation, with a phenotype characterized by hirsutism, obesity, acne, seborrhoea and hair loss.

Obesity has been observed to exert a negative impact on ARTs. Specifically, obesity may adversely affect the duration of ovarian stimulation, number and quality of oocytes and embryos, fertilization rate, embryo transfer rate as well as implantation and pregnancy rates. In obese women, a longer duration of ovarian stimulation and higher doses of gonadotropins are required. Additionally, higher cancellation rates and higher incidence of follicular asynchrony are often observed. The lower number of oocytes retrieved in overweight and obese as compared to normal weight women may be due to the lower number of follicles, technical difficulties or both.

Moreover, obesity can prevent proper trans-abdominal ultrasonography imaging during embryo transfer. All these mechanisms may be responsible for the decrease in implantation and pregnancy rates in obese women undergoing ART.

What to do before pregnancy?

There are certain important things that you need to consider when you’re planning to get pregnant, for instance emphasis needs to be out in normalizing your weight. You should neither be over or underweight because having normal weight is not only good for conception but also for the outcome of the pregnancy. While appreciating that most pregnancies are not planned it is very important that you consult a specialist on how to lose weight and calling doctor Akoury an expert in matters relating to weight and obesity will be the starting point. Remember that things are changing and the prevalence of obesity is worrying today we have established fact that weight loss before pregnancy results in a better chance for conception and increases the percentage of live births for obese women with or without PCOS.

Obesity is not an easy condition to manage and it even gets more complicated when pregnancy is involved. It is therefore very essential that obese women are fully informed about the risks of obesity and the benefits of weight loss. This valuable information will be available at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center under Doctor Akoury’s care. At this facility you will meet real expert who will attend to you professionally and help you in the management of your weight by encouraging an improved lifestyle through balanced diet and physical exercise. Besides this doctor Akoury together with her team of her experts will focus on Neuroendocrine Restoration (NER) to reinstate normality through realization of the oneness of Spirit, Mind, and Body, Unifying the threesome into ONE. The sole objective of experts at this facility under the able leadership of doctor Akoury is to restore your self-esteem and face life positively a head of your planned pregnancy. Call now and experience the real life fulfillment thereafter.

Tag Archives: Obesity and weightgain