Morbid Obesity, a Heavy and Perilous Foe

Do you know that cute fat kid next door? Well, his grandfather probably will bury him before he dies. His parents will put him to rest for sure. Does it sound bizarre? Well, it is not. It is not at all. Kids 6 – 9 years old with Morbid Obesity today are more likely to die before their parents do. A cute fat kid might be charming, but he may well be at the point of not return in the inexorable line of the “Fast Food” death row.

People affected by Morbid Obesity need to come to terms with the understanding that morbid obesity it is indeed a very serious chronic disease. Symptoms build slowly over a long period of time, and because of their slow build up pace, these indicators are normally ignored. This circumstance makes "clinically severe obesity" a lethal and chronic morbid disease. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) define morbid obesity as being 100 pounds or more over than you stereotype body weight, or having a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 40 or greater, or having a BMI of 35 or greater and one or more co-morbid conditions (there are 22 of them), where comorbidity articulate the effect of all other diseases an individual patient might have other than the primary disease of significance.

The disease of morbid obesity seriously hampers basic physical functions such as breathing, walking, or normal sexual activity. There are also long-term implications of the disease, which in some cases, long term might mean just a year (The Charlson co-morbidity index predicts 1 year mortality for a patient who may have a range of co-morbid conditions such as heart disease, AIDS, or cancer). Some of these long term repercussions include shorter life expectancy, acute health consequences in the form of weight-related conditions such as type-2 diabetes, heart disease, and a poor and inferior quality of life. Morbid obesity take away economic opportunities, and seriously impairs a normal social life.

Obesity is a serious public health issue in the U.S. Today, more than 25 million of adults are living with morbid obesity disease in the United States. This figure does not include children! By the year 2010, projections show that there may be over 33 million U.S. adults living with morbid obesity.

According to the standard guidelines of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an individual is deem to be "obese" when he or she weighs 20 % or more than his or her ideal body weight. You can always check your estimated weight values in a Height to Weight Ratio Chart. However, just a 20% of extra weight over your estimated ideal weight will establish a real health risk for you. Obesity will become "morbid" when it drastically increases the risk of one or more obesity-related health conditions, or serious co-morbidities. Amid medical terms, morbid obesity is often called "clinically severe obesity".

Today an estimated 97 million Americans, more than one-third of the adult population, are severely overweight or obese, and the number escalates every year at an alarming rate. An estimated 25 million of those overweight Americans are considered morbidly obese. If your weight is more than twice your ideal index, you double your risk of early death, you boost you risk of death from diabetes or heart attack to about 5-7 times; and you are now at the stage of untreatable obesity, along with an unwanted number of negative social, psychological and economic unavoidable consequences.

Have you had enough yet? Well, here are just a few more indulgences, courtesy of obesity and morbid obesity, and in alphabetical order:

Depression. Unfortunately, depression can kill you because it is a psychological condition and a somber problem that radically changes how you think and feel about yourself and others, impinges on your social behavior, and on your sense of physical well-being. Being obese is not an easy burden. If you are obese, alas you must deal with constant, depressing, and defying emotional ordeals such as unsuccessful diet program attempts, sometimes unfair and cruel censure from family, disrespect ands psychosomatic abuse from friends, and the ever present burlesque remarks from totally disrespectful strangers. These are grounds for social and intellectual isolation; to the point that you start to discriminate you and impeding yourself from adequately behave and function in public places.

Hiatal hernia and heartburn. There is a valve that sits on the top of your stomach -the lower esophageal sphincter- that suffers the disturbing effects of surplus weight. Your excessive flab weakens and overloads the esophageal sphincter to the point that it opens spontaneously when it shouldn’t and stays open for irregular periods of time. Also, the sphincter will not close properly and your semi-digested stomach stuffing will come up into your esophagus. Yuck! So the acid from your stomach will cause your esophagus to experience gastroesophageal reflux, and "heartburn", and this can lead to more complicated health ramifications to include esophageal cancer.

High blood pressure and Heart disease. Your heart will not operate correctly when the body is hauling around excessive weight. So you might get, without further delays, a wonderful hypertension (high blood pressure), which will lead to fatal strokes and will damage your heart and may mutilate the normal function of your unsuspecting kidneys.

Infertility. Infertility is your biological inability to contribute to conception or fecundation. This extreme condition is equally distressful for men and women. Obesity inflicts devastating damage to hormonal natural performance functions and execution purposes. It put an end to normal sexual activities, leading to the inability to conceive, with a gamma of consequential moral and psychological impairments.

Menstrual irregularities. Sometimes women have problems in their menstrual cycle. These problems are called menstrual irregularities or simply, menstrual problems. Woman affected by these conditions may not get periods, get irregular sequential periods, get periods too frequently, have unpredictable menstrual bleeding, or they may have painful periods. Normally when this conditions are not produced by pregnancy’s inherent effects, menstrual irregularities are by and large a sign of a deeper overall health circumstances or problem. Among these deeper overall health circumstances is morbid obesity.

Osteoarthritis of weight-bearing joints. When your unfairly abused joints carry your bonus weight, specially your knees and hips, it will bring them terrible wear and tear, along with uncomfortable pain and distressing inflammation. Because of this your back gets an invitation to join the party. Imposed strain on bones and muscles of your back will turn to irreversible disk problems, constant pain, and a considerable mobility reduction for you.

Sleep apnea and Respiratory problems. Doctors and researches have told us over and over that the weight of the unchecked fat accumulation in your neck and in your tongue will begin to acutely obstruct your air intake, especially if you sleep on your backs. The musical contribution to this will be your lovely snoring. You will lose sleep, and besides having daytime drowsiness and headaches, you will be drained and unfocused.

Type-2 Diabetes. Obesity quickly turns you resistant to insulin, which regulates your blood sugar concentration levels. Unregulated sugar levels provoke high blood sugar content, which causes Type-2 diabetes. This is the most common form of diabetes, in which either the body does not produce enough insulin or the cells ignore the insulin. Insulin is absolutely necessary for the body to be able to use glucose for energy. Without the proper provision of insulin, your cells may be starved for energy at once, and over time, high blood glucose levels may hurt your eyesight, kidneys functions, nerve system, or heart.

Urinary stress incontinence. A weakening and deteriorating effect of the urethral valves of the bladder it is a direct consequence of sagging abdomens. Outsized and flabby abdomens weaken ominously pelvic muscles, creating a lack of performance side-effect of the valves which results in urine leakages when coughing, sneezing, laughing, or screaming. The visual and patent effects of these leaks contribute to depression, self esteem deterioration, and other issues.

In the U.S. obesity rate is on the rise at a quick pace, but the proliferation rate of extreme, morbid obesity is developing three times faster, as studies show.


CHILE
In the South American country of Chile, the results of a Government's National Health Survey in 2003 showed that the index on population for overweight individuals was 37.8%, on the population segment for non-morbid obesity was 21.9%, and the index for the morbid obesity portion was 1.3%. Obesity occurrence was notably higher among people with a lower educational level, at a dreadful ratio of 1 to 5, and the occurrence of morbid obesity was six times higher in the low socioeconomic stratus.

Detrimental comorbidities inherent to obesity conditions are also prevalent among the Chilean population. Another serious social condition that increases the risk and attainment of obesity is the predominance of a sedentary lifestyle among Chileans. The soaring sedentary habits of Chileans are extremely high, accounting for the 89.4% of the country’s inhabitants. In Chile today, there are more than 200,000 individuals suffering morbid obesity, the study shows. Since most of these cases are amid the low end of the socio-economic and educational stratus, a great number of these individuals are suffering the disease consequences, and are in great need of expensive health care, which renders these services for them, unaffordable.

Preliminary clinical data from the program for Surgical Treatment of Obesity managed and lead by the Clinical Hospital of the Catholic University of Chile, made available results showing an epidemic predominance of cardiovascular risk factors. This statistics were obtained from a sample population among young obese subjects with an average age of 37. In many cases, a single individual exhibited two or more risk factors, and 10% of the tested population was ranked as a high global cardiovascular risk, according to the Framingham Risk Score (the Framingham risk score identifies patients at increased cardiovascular risk, and helps determine the need for preventive interventions).

Bariatric surgery
Bariatric surgery is also known as weight loss surgery, and the name it is associated to an assortment of surgical procedures executed to contend with obesity. These procedures deal with the modification of the size of the gastrointestinal tract, hence to reduce food quantity intake. For obese individuals who have been powerless to implement a drastic and permanent change in lifestyle in order to achieve a significant weight loss through diet and exercise, bariatric surgery may be an option to obtain a substantial weight loss.

Mounting evidence clearly shows that non-surgical treatment of subjects with severe or morbid obesity is insufficient anywhere in the world today, including in Chile. As an added benefit, bariatric surgery is linked to an 89% reduction in the risk of death as well as an 82% of preventive reduction in cardiovascular disease for morbidly obese patients. Since 2000, bariatric surgery services in Chile are undergoing a sustained increase. Mexico and the United States show a similar situation.


Some statistics on Morbid Obesity

The statistics depicted below can not be completely verified since the available information differs tremendously from source to source. The stats were gathered from public information places and from publically available medical studies over time, so some values might be inexact or outdated. However, these statistics are intended to give you a general idea and perspective of the problem.

Obesity:
• Some 70 million Americans are overweight
• Some 40 million Americans are obese
• Some 30 million Americans are morbidly obese
• Eight out of 10 Americans over 25 are overweight
• Some 78% of American's are not meeting basic activity level recommendations
• Some 25% are completely sedentary
• There has been a 76% increase in Type II diabetes in adults 30-40 years old since 1990

Obesity Related Diseases:
• 80% of type II diabetes is related to obesity
• 70% of cardiovascular diseases are related to obesity
• 42% breast and colon cancer are diagnosed among obese individuals
• 30% of gall bladder surgery is related to obesity
• 26% of obese people have high blood pressure

Childhood Obesity:
• A 4% overweight in 1982 went to 16% overweight 1994
• 25% of all white children were overweight by 2001
• 33% African American and Hispanic children were overweight by 2001
• Hospital costs associated with childhood obesity did rise from $35 Million in 1979 to $127 Million in 1999

Childhood Metabolic and Heart Risks:
• New study suggests one in four overweight children is already showing early signs of type II diabetes
• 60% of obese children already have one risk factor for heart disease

Childhood Diabetes Surge
• Between 8% - 45% of newly diagnosed cases of childhood diabetes are type II, associated with obesity.
• Whereas 4% of Childhood diabetes was type II in 1990, that number has risen to approximately 20%
• Depending on the age group (Type II most frequent 10-19 group) and the racial/ethnic make up of the group stated of children diagnosed with Type II diabetes, 85% are obese


Miscellaneous

A study linking morbid obesity and depression that appeared in the American Journal of Epidemiology denotes people who suffer from morbid obesity, are at least five times more predisposed to become depressed than those who are not. This puts people who are morbidly obese are at a very high risk for suicide.

Persons who are subject to morbid obesity, in addition of having to deal with the extra weight and unattractive aesthetics of their bodies, they also have to deal with the pitiless and emotionally taxing social stigma coupled with obesity, mayor contributors to the onset of depression.

ScienceDaily (Sep. 3, 2006 – Extract) — University of Florida researchers have discovered a link between morbid obesity in toddlers and lower IQ scores, cognitive delays and brain lesions similar to those seen in Alzheimer's disease patients, a new study shows.

Although the cause of these cognitive impairments is still unknown, University of Florida researchers suspect the metabolic disturbances obesity causes could be taking a toll on young brains, which are still developing and not fully protected, they write in an article published in the Journal of Pediatrics "Now, we're postulating that early-onset morbid obesity and these metabolic, biochemical problems can also lead to cognitive impairment."


A Word of Caution

In the present day, obesity has developed itself into the public enemy number one, and the main health threat issue in the United States. Researches have shown us overwhelming amounts of evidence supporting findings that puts obesity and morbid obesity, as an important cause of preventable death in the United States, closely following behind tobacco consumption.

According to the National Institute of Health, more than 300,000 deaths per year are rooted on obesity.

So, do you know that cute fat kid next door? You might never look at him again the same way…