Overweight and obesity are one of the main ailments of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Obesity affects 250 million people worldwide, and this number continues to increase.
It has been found that overweight and obese people more often than people with normal body weight have increased levels of total cholesterol, "bad" cholesterol (low density lipoproteins) and triglycerides, as well as decreased levels of "good" cholesterol (high lipoproteins). density). They are more likely to have disorders of carbohydrate metabolism and diabetes mellitus. In this regard, overweight and obesity significantly increase the likelihood of atherosclerosis and its complications in humans.
In obese people, due to the large body weight, the length of the capillary network increases, which is a great burden on the heart. The heart muscle in obese people quickly hypertrophies and over time they develop heart and vascular failure. Obese people often suffer from arterial hypertension.
Due to the high risk of complications, Western insurance companies often refuse to insure people with obesity.
So, what is the danger of being overweight?
• Atherosclerosis in overweight people of young age occurs 2 times more often than in young people with normal body weight.
• High blood pressure in overweight people occurs 3 times more often than in people
with normal (or "ideal") body weight.
• The addition of 1 kg of fat mass entails the formation of 300 km of additional capillaries (the smallest blood vessels).; This, in turn, is a significant load for the main pump of the body - the heart, which must ensure the delivery of blood to all vessels of the body.
• The likelihood of developing diabetes mellitus in moderately obese people increases 9 times, in obese people - 40 times!
On the other hand, in people with diabetes mellitus, obesity occurs in 80% of cases, and hypertension, coronary heart disease and high blood cholesterol levels are noted in more than two-thirds of patients visiting a doctor.
• The most dangerous to health is abdominal obesity - the deposition of fat in the abdomen. Abdominal obesity is also called male obesity.
Abdominal obesity is diagnosed if the waist, measured in centimeters, in men exceeds 102 cm, and in women exceeds 88 centimeters.
• Mortality in persons with first degree obesity exceeds that of normal body weight by 178%, obesity of the second degree - by 225%. And with third degree obesity and overweight people, the mortality rate is 4-6 times higher than that of people with normal weight.
Unfortunately, in our country you can often hear that obesity is not a disease, but a cosmetic defect.
The main cause of obesity is overeating. There are many drugs that suppress appetite, break down fat, but all of them are far from indifferent to the body.
It must be remembered that balanced, sensible nutrition and daily physical activity, which make it possible to equalize the number of calories absorbed and the amount spent, still remain unsurpassed ways to normalize weight. This is the safest method of maintaining a healthy body weight.