Heart Disease 

A simple definition of obesity is having too much body fat.

The human body consists of carbohydrate, fat, protein, water and many vitamins and minerals. When we have too much fat, especially around our middle area, we’re at a much higher risk for health challenges. These include heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure and high blood cholesterol. Obesity is now recognized as a major risk factor for coronary heart disease. It can lead to heart attack.

Some examples of how obesity can increase the risk of a heart attack include:

Raises blood pressure

Raises blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels

Lowers HDL (good cholesterol)

Obesity increases the chances of heart disease even if there are not any known risk factors. It also hurts more than the heart and blood vessel system. Obesity is the major reason of gallstones and can worsen degenerative joint disease.

Diabetes and Insulin Resistance

Not only is diabetes four times more common in overweight people, but the death rate for overweight diabetics is triple that of those with normal (or less) weight. Although being overweight is not the sole cause of diabetes, it hastens the onset of people prone to it. In such cases, weight loss can help control the diabetes.

The risk of type 2 diabetes increases with the severity and length of obesity. Type 2 diabetes is connected with central obesity. Someone with central obesity has too much fat around the waist area, so the body is shaped like an apple. Type 2 diabetes decreases the body’s capacity to control blood sugar.

Losing weight and regular exercise can decrease the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. If you already have DM II losing weight and increasing your physical activity can help control your blood sugar levels. Another added bonus of increased physical activity may help you to reduce the current amount of medications you need.

Insulin resistance: Insulin is essential for the carry blood glucose (sugar) into the cells of muscle and fat (which is then used for energy). By carrying glucose into cells, insulin keeps the blood glucose levels in the normal range. Insulin resistance (IR) is the condition when the effectiveness of insulin in transporting glucose (sugar) into cells is decreased. Interestingly fat cells are more insulin resistant than muscle cells; therefore, one important cause of IR is obesity. The pancreas at first responds to IR by the production of more insulin. As long as the pancreas can produce sufficient insulin to combat this resistance, blood glucose levels remain normal. This IR state (characterized by normal blood glucose levels and high insulin levels) can last many years. Once the pancreas can not keep up with producing high levels of insulin, blood glucose levels begin to increase, the outcome results in type 2 diabetes, thus IR is a pre-diabetes condition. An interesting fact is that scientists now believe that the hardening of the arteries associated with diabetes likely develops during this IR period.

Joint Disease

A vicious cycle is set up in obese patients with osteoarthritis of the hip, knees, or feet. Also in those who suffer from a ruptured disc. Being overweight promotes more wear and tear on the joints, which produces irritation and discomfort. The more pain, the less active the patient becomes resulting in the probability of more weight gain thus producing more complications with the joint disease.

Obesity is a risk factor for joint disease, especially osteoarthritis, at both weight-bearing joints such as the knee, and non-weight bearing joints such as the joints of the hand.

A program of regular physical activity can strengthen the muscles, tendons, and ligaments surrounding the affected joints and preserve mobility in joints that are developing bone spurs. Many physicians believe that osteoarthritis may be prevented by good health habits.

For people with joint disease it is very important to remain active, maintaining an ideal body weight, and exercising the muscles and joints regularly to help nourish cartilage.