Obesity- Not Just A Body Shape But A Silent Chronic Disease!!!

Obesity is defined as a condition of abnormal or excessive fat accumulation in adipose tissue. The distribution of fat in the body is either around the waist and trunk (abdominal, central or android obesity) or peripherally around the body (gynoid obesity) -both of which have important health implications.

Obesity is a common and preventable disease and is not well accepted in society. It is often a major risk factor for the development of several non-communicable diseases, significant disability and premature death. It is a common but often underestimated condition of clinical and public health importance. It is instead the general acceptance of societies as a sign of well-being or social status, and the denial by health care professionals and the public alike that it is a disease in its own, have contributed to its improper identification and management and the lack of effective public health strategies to combat its rise. Obese require effective weight loss strategies that includes dietary therapy, physical activity and lifestyle modification. And there is no effective drug therapy to treat weight gain or obesity.

The latest trend these days is people are more into self-worth and self-love attitude where they feel loving their unhealthy body is understanding their self-worth. It is right to love yourself but people have now started promoting unhealthy body shapes just to mentally satisfy the plus size person’s self-worth. But there is nothing related to self-respect or self-worth in keeping an unhealthy body. In fact it’s about inviting the micro and macro vascular diseases. There is a very thin line between “self-love” and promoting “unhealthy body”. Loving yourself is good, appreciating your body is also good but one need to understand that being overweight is unhealthy. Obesity is a disease and not just a body shape or type. Obesity is a chronic disease which is silent in the initial years but is actually eating your body from inside and will show it’s true face when it’s already too late to reverse the consequences. Obesity may lead to various dysfunctioning of body organs and result in non-communicable diseases such as cardiac problem (high BP, dislipidemia, arterial blockage, heart failure etc), gall bladder disease, certain cancers (endometrial, breast, prostate, colon) and non-fatal conditions including gout, respiratory conditions, gastro-esophageal reflux disease, diabetes and other hormonal disorders, PCOS in women, osteoarthritis, mental illness, sleep appenia, stress or other psychological problems mainly due to societal prejudice against fatness.etc.

By saying all this we don’t want to discourage anyone to feel bad about their body or their physical appearance but we want people to identify if there is any unnecessary weight gain so that the treatment can be started at the earliest.

It is very important for every individual to understand how obesity is defined. The centre for Disease control and prevention (CDC) defines obesity with a marker BMI of 30 or above for adults. The BMI further help divide obesity in 3 different grades:

  • Grade I Obesity: BMI 30-34
  • Grade II Obesity: BMI 35-39
  • Grade III Obesity (“extreme” or “severe” or Morbid): BMI above 40

Whereas, in children, overweight and obesity is defined according to the CDC’s (Clinical Growth Chart) charts. For children and adolescents aged 2-20 year are considered under CDC’s Chart:

  • 85th percentile or above: overweight
  • 95th percentile or above: Obese
  • At or above 120th percentile of the 95th percentile: extreme or morbid obesity

So, visit your dietician or Nutrition Expert and get yourselves to be nutritionally assessed and identify any early symptoms related to unnecessary weight gain

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