Obesity Health Dangers Warning

According to a health warning about weight, issued by the US Surgeon General, obesity may soon overtake smoking as the leading cause of preventable deaths in the US. The facts are compelling. In America, an estimated 58 million adults are overweight; 40 million are obese (seriously overweight) and 3 million suffer from life-threatening obesity (morbid obesity). Since 1990, there has been a 76 percent increase in Type 2 diabetes in adults aged 30-40 yrs old. As a weight gain of only 11-18 pounds raises a person’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes to twice that of individuals who have not gained weight, the health risks of overweight are obvious.

Obesity Death-Total Controversy

Each year, according to researchers at CDC, an estimated 300,000 Americans die prematurely of disease caused by or related to obesity or being very overweight. However, new data published in JAMA (April 2005) concludes that obesity causes “only” 112,000 premature deaths in America each year – significantly fewer than the original CDC study. Obesity experts now seem to state that, while patients with morbid obesity (BMI 40+) or malignant obesity (BMI 50+) remain at a high risk of premature mortality, regular obesity (BMI 30+) is no more dangerous to health than underweight. Controversy surrounding weight-related disease, comorbidities and premature death seems likely to continue!

Examples of Health Dangers Related to Excess Body Fat

80 percent of type 2 diabetes patients are obese
70 percent of coronary heart disease and stroke is related to obesity
42 percent of breast and colon cancer patients are obese
Gallstones occur approximately 3 times more often in obese than in non-obese patients
26 percent of obese patients have elevated blood pressure