Obesity: Causes, Diseases, and Prevention - Prof. John Winborn, Study notes of Health sciences

Download Obesity: Causes, Diseases, and Prevention - Prof. John Winborn and more Study notes Health sciences in PDF only on Docsity! Ashley Scheuer Health issue research paper November 6th, 2011 Scheuer 2 Obesity According to the free medical dictionary, the definition of obesity is an increase in body weight beyond the limitation of skeletal and physical requirements, as the result of excessive accumulation of body fat (medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/obesity). Three main factors of people becoming overweight according to Pubmed Health, are eating more food than your body can use, not enough exercise, and drinking too much alcohol (Pubhealth, 1). Based on the statistics of the Weight-control Information Network, two thirds of U.S. Americans are obese or overweight (win.niddk.nih.gov/statistics/). Many reasons why one could be overweight result in three ways: genetics and the different types of diseases such as cancers, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and sleep apnea. There are two ways a person can figure out if they’re overweight or not. The first way is to check your BMI, your body mass index which uses a height/weight relationship, tells you approximately how much body mass you hold. It is really important for kids to be educated on what BMI is, how to calculate their own, and the meaning of a BMI (Perspectives, 2572). The main reason for this education is because, according to Perspectives, children who are obese will most likely be obese as adults (Perspectives, 2568). The second way to check is waist circumference. By doing this, males measuring 40 inches and females measuring 30 inches around the waste are considered to be obese and may want to do something about it to avoid certain diseases. Scheuer 5 possible growth of tumors. Another explanation of cancer could be rapid cell growth (L.A. Times, 2). The fourth topic of discussion among the obese population is diabetes. Diabetes has been studied by researchers a lot and has become one of the top leading diseases in causes of death. Most likely to develop diabetes and heart disease are those kids and teens who are overweight (When being overweight is a problem, 2). According to the diabetic care services website, the IDF states, “Diabetes and obesity are the biggest public health challenges of the 21st century.” The numbers have increased 40 percent in 10 years and every 3 seconds someone else is diagnosed with diabetes (diabeticcareservices.com). if you have diabetes and you don’t modify your weight and diet, you’ll end up obese but if you lose that 5-10 pounds it takes, it can definitely help prevent it. The fifth and final topic related to why so many are obese is stroke. Stroke stands in the top ten ways people die and if you are obese, high blood pressure can lead to higher chances of stroke. To avoid your higher chances of stroke and keeping your blood pressure down, 30 minutes/5 days a week of exercise is highly recommended. Diabetes, heart disease, and sleep apnea are all tied into stroke. The number of children who are obese is increasing and that means the number of cases with strokes in children is increasing. Maintaining a healthy diet and physical activity will help this problem for kids (obesity-strokeconnection.com). Life-long behavioral changes can help someone’s success at losing weight than short- term weight loss. There are three ways to do this, eat healthier, get physically active, and watch Scheuer 6 what you eat. According to perspectives, in a household with children, the caregiver of the home should educate their children about obesity as well as have their children help them pick out foods, plan meals, and cook meals (Perspectives, ). Things you could do to get your mind and body moving are things like cleaning, cooking, playing sports such as baseball, tennis, ping- pong, swimming, basketball, football, biking, canoeing/kayaking, or even running around with your dog in the yard. Don’t say you can do these things. Look up some motivators, get a gym membership, and find something to motivate you such as a friend. It doesn’t have to be a chore, find something you can do and enjoy it. In conclusion, obesity is a major problem for Americans and has continues to get worse. There are many programs, gyms, and opportunities to get active. People just need to turn off their TV’s and get active. I’ll be totally honest, it annoys me to walk into wal-mart and see so many people overweight. I have nothing against because obviously they have their own problems that probably relate to health issues. It’s just disturbing and being overweight can be prevented, it just has to happen and it takes a life-long commitment of good choices. Scheuer 7 Work-Cited: Caprio, Sonia, Stephen R. Daniels, Adam Drenowski, Francine R. Kaufman, Lawrence A. Palinkas, Arlan L. Rosenbloom, and Jeffrey B. Schwimmer. "Influence of Race, Ethnicity, and Culture on Childhood Obesity: Implications for Prevention and Treatment." Perspectives 16.12 (2008): 2566-577. Print. "Diabetes and Obesity: Explore the Relationship Between Obesity and Diabetes." Diabetic Care Services and Pharmacy. 2011. Web. 07 Nov. 2011. <http://www.diabeticcareservices.com/diabetes-education/diabetes-and-obesity>. Gavin, Mary L. "When Being Overweight Is a Health Problem." KidsHealth - the Web's Most Visited Site about Children's Health. Oct. 2010. Web. 30 Oct. 2011. <http://kidshealth.org/teen/food_fitness/dieting/obesity.html>. Myers, Michael D. "Sleep Apnea and Obesity from Michael D. Myers, M.D., Inc." Objective Medical Information on Obesity from Michael D. Myers, M.D., Inc. 28 May 2004. Web. 07 Nov. 2011. <http://www.weight.com/sleep.asp>. "Obesity - Definition of Obesity in the Medical Dictionary - by the Free Online Medical Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia." Medical Dictionary. Web. 6 Nov. 2011. <http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/p/obesity>.