The Ten Health Risks of Obesity

Your Health and Obesity

Carrying additional weight has an impact beyond only your scale result and clothes size. Your heart, joints, and even the blood running through your veins are all impacted by obesity. The health issues associated with obesity may surprise you.

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Initial Type 2 Diabetes

Diabetes type 2 is a prevalent health issue. When your blood sugar levels are too high, it happens. 80 percent of type 2 diabetes sufferers are fat or overweight. According to specialists, more fat tissue may alter how well your body uses blood sugar.

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2. Osteoarthritis

Where your bones grind against one other at your joints, there is a protective layer called cartilage. Osteoarthritis develops when this defense breaks down, resulting in stiffness and joint discomfort. Osteoarthritis is brought on by additional weight placing strain on joints, which wears away this protective coating.

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3. Cancer

A increased risk for several cancers is associated with obesity. Obese persons are more likely to develop breast, colon, kidney, pancreatic, and thyroid cancers. Why? It's likely that some of the hormones produced by fat cells may help cause cancer.

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4. Sleep Apnea

Your breathing will stop multiple times during the night if you have this common sleep condition. You may experience extreme daytime fatigue if you have sleep apnea, which also raises your chance of developing health issues like diabetes. The main risk factor for developing sleep apnea is obesity. Due to additional fatty tissue around the upper airway, obese persons may be more susceptible to the condition. The airway may become narrower and more prone to shut as a result.

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5. Stroke

When blood flow to a portion of the brain is interrupted, a stroke takes place. Additionally, a stroke can have catastrophic results. The majority of stroke victims have mobility issues. There are deadly strokes. Obesity-related high blood pressure is a significant risk factor for strokes.

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6. Low Blood Pressure

Your blood pressure might go up if you are obese. Your heart needs to work harder to pump blood through a huge body. Your arteries and veins are under more pressure as a result. Heart disease and heart damage are both caused by high blood pressure.

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7. Heart illness

Heart attacks, heart failure, and issues with the heart's valves are all included in the umbrella phrase "heart disease." In America, heart diseases are the leading cause of death. Obesity raises your risk for conditions like high cholesterol that might aggravate heart disease.

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8. High Cholesterol

Triglyceride and LDL, or "bad" cholesterol, are more prevalent in overweight or obese people. Additionally, they often have lower HDL—or "good"—cholesterol—levels. Your risk of developing heart disease is increased by these cholesterol and triglyceride levels.

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9. Issues Associated With Pregnancy

Obesity during pregnancy may have an impact on both the mother and the unborn child. For instance, pregnant obese women run the risk of having high blood pressure and gestational diabetes. For mom and baby, both may lead to difficulties. Additionally, if the mother is fat, a preterm delivery is more probable.

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10. Kidney Illness

High blood pressure and diabetes, the two conditions most likely to result in kidney damage, are made more probable by obesity. Your body accumulates waste as a result of kidney dysfunction. If the condition becomes so bad that you end up with kidney failure, you could require dialysis or a transplant.

Cardiovascular Disease and Obesity

The relationship between body weight and several cardiovascular risk factors is direct. Low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or "bad") cholesterol, triglycerides, blood sugar, and inflammation all rise along with BMI. Increased risk for coronary heart disease, stroke, and cardiovascular mortality results from these changes:

Coronary Artery Disease and obesity. Numerous studies have shown a connection between coronary artery disease and being overweight (CAD). A meta-analysis of 21 long-term studies that followed more than 300,000 people for an average of 16 years was carried out by the BMI-CAD Collaboration Investigators. In comparison to study participants who were at a normal weight, those who were overweight had a 32 percent greater chance of having CAD; those who were obese had an 81 percent higher risk. (9) The risk estimates for obesity remained significantly substantial after accounting for blood pressure and cholesterol levels. The researchers calculated that only approximately half of the increased risk of coronary heart disease associated with obesity is attributable to the impact of extra weight on blood pressure and blood cholesterol.

Stroke and obesity. Numerous disease processes and risk factors are similar between coronary artery disease and ischemic (clot-caused) stroke. A direct, graded connection between excess weight and stroke risk was shown by a meta-analysis of 25 prospective cohort studies with 2.3 million individuals. Obesity raised ischemic stroke risk by 64 percent compared to obesity's 22 percent rise. However, there was no connection between being overweight or obese and hemorrhagic (bleeding-caused) stroke. (10) Blood pressure, cholesterol, and diabetes were statistically taken into account in a second study, which reduced the relationships and suggested that these variables may operate as mediators between obesity and stroke.

Cardiovascular Death and Obesity. Obesity was shown to be strongly linked with mortality from CAD and cardiovascular disease in a meta-analysis of 26 observational studies that included 390,000 men and women, a range of racial and ethnic groupings, and samples from the United States and other nations. In comparison to women with BMIs in the normal range, those with BMIs of 30 or above had a 62 percent increased chance of developing CAD and a 53 percent higher risk of developing any kind of cardiovascular disease (18.5 to 24.9). Men who had a BMI of 30 or above also ran increased risks. (11) The good news is that weight reduction of 5 to 10 percent of body weight may improve other cardiovascular risk factors and reduce blood pressure, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides. (12-14)