OBESITY

Obesity

Obesity

Introduction

Obesity is commonly defined as severely overweight. This verbal definition is complemented by a quantitative specification of the boundaries between underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obesity. The World Health Organization (WHO) and most experts in this field refer to the body mass index (BMI) as a simple indicator relating the weight of an individual to his or her height. BMI is defined as the weight in kilograms (w), divided by the square of the height (h) in meters (kg/m2). (Kushner C, Robert F. 2007)

Discussion

Obesity has become one of the common problems nowadays. It can be found in the people of all the ages from children to the old ones. Earlier, it was rare among the children but now it can be seen frequently among children of all the ages. Obesity not only affects the physical appearance of the individuals and promotes a negative impression about the personality of the individuals but it is also a root cause of different incurable diseases. Obesity in adults is associated with a risk increased early mortality and morbidity (cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer: colon cancer in both sexes and breast cancer in women). Obesity is a cardiovascular risk factor in itself. Normal weight, obese people were on three times higher risk of mortality from cardiovascular disease and 2 times greater risk of mortality from all causes. An alarming result is showed by a Danish study that BMI in children is strongly correlated with cardiovascular risk in adults: excess weight of 11 kg in a boy of 13 years increases the risk of cardiovascular events in adulthood by 33%. Even a little overweight increases the risk of cardiovascular disease (excess weight of 3.9 kg in a 7 year old boy increases the risk of cardiovascular events in adulthood by 10%). These results ...