From diabetes to heart failure, being overweight is hard on the body. Simply put, the human body is not designed to carry excess weight. Over three hundred thousand deaths a year are caused by obesity and related health issues.
Even modest weight loss can begin to improve your health and stamina.
Some thing you might have noticed after you gained weight is that your joints hurt. Every extra pound that you are overweight equals four extra pounds of pressure to your knees, and six pounds of excess pressure to your hips. There has been some research showing that being overweight produces toxic chemicals that damage joints.
When you add these factors together with inactivity, the result can be a devastating condition known as osteoarthritis. Hip and knee replacements might ultimately be the only way to stop the pain once this disease has set in.
Hypertension often goes hand in hand with obesity. Much of this has to do with dietary choices; high cholesterol causes narrowing of the arteries, which in turn causes the heart to work harder and results in hypertension. Losing weight can mean a significant drop in blood pressure.
Hypertension in obese patients can cause an even more frightening condition, heart disease. The risk of death from heart disease is nearly forty times greater in an overweight person. Congestive heart failure, sudden cardiac death, and heart attacks are all too common in the obese; losing weight is the only way to fight back.
Respiratory conditions are frequently found in overweight people. Sleep apnea is a common problem that occurs when a person stops breathing at night due to pressure on the windpipe. Most of the respiratory problems associated with being overweight are because the lungs cannot expand fully; therefore the overweight person cannot perform even the slightest tasks without feeling winded and is unable to rest at night, causing chronic exhaustion. Losing weight will allow you to breathe properly again and give you back your life.
Metabolic conditions such as diabetes are caused by obesity. The blood cells become covered in excess fat, blocking the body’s natural sugar fighting agent called insulin. The organ that produces insulin, the pancreas, becomes weak and can possibly run out of insulin.
Diabetes can cause organ failure, neuropathies, kidney disease, and heart disease. The Type II Diabetic is one who develops diabetes later in life, frequently due to being overweight, and is often able to control diabetes through better dietary choices and weight loss.
Lack of circulation in the lower extremeties is a common problem among the overweight, and is caused by excess weight blocking the blood vessels needed to transport fresh blood to the vessels. The results can be devastating, from leg ulcers and discoloration up to gangrene of the extremity. Losing weight will allow the blood to flow freely to these vessels again.
Exercise, dietary changes and physician follow up can stop the progression of these life threatening illnesses. Even modest weight loss begins to reverse these health threats immediately. Don’t delay… start doing something about your weight today.