
Excess Weight, Obesity and Health. Your weight should not be reason for you to be uncomfortable. Help is available today
There are many ways in which a person’s health is directly related to one’s body weight and because of this relationship it is very important that we are well conversant with our individual weight less we be caught unaware with certain life complications. Measurement of weight is commonly done using the body mass index (BMI). This is a measure of whether you’ve a healthy weight for your height. You can use the BMI healthy weight calculator to work out your score for instance for most adults:
- BMI of 25 to 29.9 means you are considered overweight
- BMI of 30 to 39.9 means you are considered obese
- BMI of 40 or above means you are considered severely obese
Nonetheless it must be noted that BMI is not used to definitively diagnose obesity since muscular individuals often have a high BMI, without necessarily having excess fat but that notwithstanding for most people it is a useful indication of whether they may be overweight. Therefore a better measure of excess fat is waist circumference which can be used as an additional measure in people who are overweight (with a BMI of 25 to 29.9) or moderately obese (with a BMI of 30 to 34.9).
Why then do people gain weight? Is it because of depression? There are very many reasons why people gain weight, however while evaluating the findings of some 15 studies, it was established that obese people have up to 55% higher risk of developing depression over a period of time as compared to those with normal weight. What does this communicates to us? Let us consider some of the reasons that may make obesity to increase risk of depression in an individual’s life:
- Both conditions appear to stem (at least in part) from alterations in brain chemistry and function in response to stress.
- Psychological factors are also plausible. For instance in most cultures, being slender equals beautiful, and being overweight can lower self-esteem, a known trigger for depression.
- Odd eating patterns and eating disorders, as well as the physical discomfort of being obese, are known to foster depression.
The study also established that depressed people have a higher risk of becoming obese by about 58%. The following are some of the reasons why depression may lead to obesity:
- High levels of stress hormone cortisol (common in people with depression) may change substances in fat cells which contributes to fat accumulation, especially in the belly, more likely, according to one theory.
- Depressed people often feel too blue to eat properly and exercise regularly, making them more prone to gain weight.
- Some medications used to treat depression cause weight gain.
Excessive weight is associated with so many health conditions including high blood pressure and unhealthy levels of cholesterol and other fats in the blood, tend to occur together. These can lead to simultaneous health problems like heart disease and stroke with high blood pressure being about six times more common in people who are obese than in those who are lean. According to a study done in 2007 in Archives of Internal Medicine examined the connection between weight and heart disease by pooling results from some 21 different studies involving more than 300,000 people it was established that:
- Being overweight increased the risk of heart disease by 32%
- Obesity increased the risk by 81%
Although the adverse effects of overweight on blood pressure and cholesterol levels could account for 45% of the increased heart disease risk it was concluded that even modest amounts of excess weight can increase the odds of heart disease independent of those well-known risks. Compared with people of normal weight, overweight people face a 22% higher risk of stroke. For those who are obese, the increased risk rises to 64%, according to a 2010 report in the journal Stroke, which pooled results from 25 studies involving more than two million people.
Overweight and obesity are very much associated with diabetes and experts have nicknamed the two as “diabesity” to describe the phenomenon. It is frustratingly worrying that about 90% of people with type 2 diabetes are overweight or obese. A high blood sugar level and the hallmark of diabetes, is one of the features of metabolic syndrome. If this is not treated or is poorly controlled, diabetes can lead to life threatening complications like kidney failure, blindness, and foot or leg amputations.
Experts are debating as to the proper ranking of obesity as one of the causes of cancer deaths and some have ranked obesity second after cigarette smoking. According to the American Cancer Society study published in The New England Journal of Medicine, the study followed more than 900,000 people for 16 years and it was evident that there was a link between excess body weight and many different cancers and some of the findings included:
- Looking at people aged 50 and above it was established that overweight and obesity may account for 14% and 20% of all cancer deaths in men and women respectively.
- In both men and women, higher BMIs was associated with a higher risk of dying from cancer of the esophagus, colon and rectum, liver, gallbladder, pancreas, or kidney.
- Excess weight also increased the risk of dying from stomach or prostate cancer in men.
- In women deaths from cancer of the breast, uterus, cervix, or ovary were elevated in women with higher BMIs.
Finally because excess weight plays a role in so many common and deadly diseases, overweight and obesity can significantly reduce your lifespan. With experts ranking obesity second after cigarette smoking as the leading cause of cancers deaths your life is likely to be reduced if this condition is not addressed in good time. To address this problem it will be very important that you call on doctor Akoury who is an expert in this discipline and has been in practice for well over two decades now. Doctor Akoury founded AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center a facility in which she administers timely treatment to all people suffering from all kinds of weight related complications.
AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center is not just any health facility but one with great difference. Doctor Dalal Akoury heads a team of well experience experts ready to receive you and evaluate your individual conditions and put you into recovery program that will ensure reviving your health back using the most natural means. Under Doctor Akoury’s care absolute focus will be on Neuroendocrine Restoration (NER) to reinstate normality through realization of the oneness of Spirit, Mind, and Body, Unifying the threesome into ONE this way you will have your life back and enjoy it to the fullest.

