The first fact on obesity one should be acquainted with is that it is a condition in which the body has excessive fat and leads to the risk of developing heart diseases, type II diabetes, high blood pressure as well as osteoarthritis and asthma. When the body cannot balance its intake of calories with its energy expenditure, the person will be in a condition of obesity.
One Third Of Adult Americans Are Obese
Another fact on obesity reveals that, it is believed, there are as many as one hundred million people in America, or fifty-five percent who are overweight, and one third of adult Americans are obese. Furthermore, over the next decade or so, seventy to eighty percent of all heart disease deaths may occur in type II diabetics, and obesity is the primary cause of such a condition.
There is also hypertension to contend with, which is closely associated with obesity, and it may be evaluated in different ways, which are body mass index or BMI, measuring total circumference of the waist, and finally, considering other disease risk factors normally attributed to obesity.
There are more facts on obesity that show that an estimated ninety-seven million Americans are overweight, of which thirty-eight million are obese, and in the preceding twenty years, the number of children that were obese are thought to have doubled. Obesity in African-American girls is the fastest growing among all the different demographic groups in America.
There are even more hard facts on obesity available that underscore the dangers of such a condition, and if one goes into adulthood and turns twenty and is morbidly obese, and a male, it would result in their losing twelve to thirteen years of life, while in the case of females, it would result in a loss of eight years of their lives. A pretty frightening thought, if one considers it as a twenty percent loss of life expectancy.
Other facts on obesity reveal that, in the US, it is a complex as well as multi-factorial chronic disease that may occur due to environmental (social and cultural) factors or genetic, physiologic, metabolic as well as behavioral and psychological factors, and leads in being the cause of preventable deaths in the U.S.
It is also known for a fact that obesity increases the risk of illnesses, and is associated with increase in deaths from all causes. Persons with obesity problems will be more likely to be at risk of impaired mobility as well as be the butt of social stigmatization and discrimination when seeking employment or entering academic institutions.
