5 posts tagged “causes of obesity”

Major Complications of Obesity and Their Causes

Jul 25, 2009
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Obesity leads to various ailments and psychological problems. The muscles of obese persons are weak and flabby. Arthritis is also common in obese persons. The weight bearing joints are under constant stress and strain due to excess weight of the body. Blood vessels of obese persons get constricted due to excess cholesterol, which form plaques (atheromas). This leads to high blood pressure, stabbing pain in the chest (angina pectoris), heart attacks and strokes. The digestive system of obese persons is prone to diseases like diverticular pathologies. Gall stones may be formed due to excess cholesterol. Cancers, diabetes are all products of obesity. Obesity also creates problems during pregnancy.

The various diseases and complications due to obesity shorten the lifespan of individuals and can lead to premature death. Mortality and morbidity are both to associate closely with obesity. An obese person not only suffers physical pains but also suffers psychological trauma. He feels inferior, and there may be psychological problems as he is often ridiculed and teased.

Causes of Obesity

The various causes of obesity include overeating, lack of exercise, sedentary lifestyle, genetic factors, endocrine (hormonal imbalances) – all constitute important causative factors of obesity. Among endocrinal causes we need to discuss certain syndromes. In syndromes we have a set of pathologies grouped in a very characteristic manner.

1. Cushing’s syndrome

This is due to excessive glucocorticoid hormones (cortical). This can also occur due to excessive corticosteroid administration. That is, both endogenous and exogenous cortisols can cause cushings. The clinical features are:

• Wasting of tissue myopathy (weak muscles); thin skin, osteporosis, purple abdominal striations.

• Water retention oedema, high BP.

• Obesity of trunk, head, neck.

Apart from there they will be excessively prone to infection; poor wound healing, hirsuitism (hair growth in women).

2. Pickwickian syndrome

This syndrome is caused by many factors; obesity is one of the causes. Enlarged tonsils, acromegaly, myxoedema are all other causes. What happens in this syndrome? During sleep there is collapse of pharyngeal walls leading to respiratory obstruction, sometimes for well over a minute. O2 and CO2 disturb sleep and there is daytime somnolence. Personality changes, intellectual deterioration, headaches, enuresis are all presenting features. One of the important aspects of treatment is to lose weight.

3. Laurence moon biedl syndrome

There is polydaetyly (extra digits) retinitis pigmentos, cataract, microphthalmia, obesity, absent facial hair, hypogenitalism. This is a pituitary gland disorder. Also called Frohlichs syndrome or Adipose genital syndrome, some consider the fat boy of Pickwick Papers as an example of this syndrome. Others put him in the ‘pickwickian’ syndrome, i.e., obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome.

Thus we see in the above syndromes that either obesity is a cause or manifesting feature.

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Disclaimer: This article is not meant to provide health advice and is for general information only. Always seek the insights of a qualified health professional before embarking on any health program.

How to Prevent Obesity and Overweight?

Mar 2, 2009
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The best way to prevent obesity and overweight is to know the factors responsible for weight gain. This will help to avoid the conditions that can contribute to obesity. For most people, obesity and overweight are caused by not having energy balance.

You get energy or calories from food and drinks. This energy is called energy IN. Your body needs a certain amount of energy for activities like breathing, digesting, and being physically active. This energy is called energy OUT. When energy IN is more than energy OUT, you gain weight. In the similar way when the energy OUT is more that energy IN, you lose weight. If you want to maintain the same weight, your energy IN and OUT should be equal.

Obesity definitely runs in families. Furthermore, identical twins usually maintain weight levels within two pounds of each other throughout life if they live under similar conditions or within five pounds of each other if their conditions of life differ markedly.

This might result partly from eating habits engendered during childhood, but it is generally believed that this close similarly between twins is genetically controlled.

The genes can direct the degree of feeding in several different ways including a genetic abnormality of the feeding center to set the level of nutrient storage high or low, abnormal hereditary psychic factors that either whet the appetite or cause the person to eat as a ‘release’ mechanism.

Childhood over-nutrition is also important factor responsible for obesity. The rate of formation of new fat cells is especially rapid in the first few years of life, and the greater the rate of fat storage the greater also becomes the number of fat cells. In obese children the number of fat cells is often as much as three times that that in normal children. However, after adolescence the number of fat cells remains almost identically the same throughout the remainder of life. Therefore, it has been suggested that overfeeding the children, especially in infancy and to a lesser extend during the older years of childhood, can lead to a lifetime of obesity.

The person who has excess fat cells is though to have a higher setting of fat storage by the hypothalamic feedback auto regulatory mechanism for adipose tissues. In less obese persons, especially those who become obese in middle or old age, most of the obesity results from hyperbiophy (enlargement) of already existing fat cells. This type of obesity is far more susceptible to treatment than is the life long type. An interesting peculiarity of this type of obesity is that these persons have excess secretion of insulin, similar to the excess insulin secretion that occurs in animals with lesions in the ventromedial nuclei of the hypothalamus.

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What Causes Obesity and Overweight?

Mar 2, 2009
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The causes of obesity and overweight naturally differ from individual to individual. In general, you will gain weight if your calorie intake is higher than the calories you use through exercise or normal activity. Let discuss in detail.

Some people eat more than usual when they are stressed, bored or angry. Over time, overeating will lead to weight gain and may cause overweight or obesity. Lack of physical activity is another important cause of obesity and overweight. People who are inactive are more likely to gain weight because they don’t burn up the calories that they take in from food and drinks.

Your environment can also encourage obesity. Lack of parks, trails, sidewalks, and affordable gyms makes it hard for people to be physically active. Due to busy work schedules, you may not have time to be physically active. Over-sized food portions also contribute to obesity and overweight. Due to fast life, people are now more surrounded by huge food portions in restaurants, fast food places, gas stations, movie theaters, supermarkets, and even home. Eating large portions means too much energy intake. Over time, this will cause weight gain if it isn’t balanced with physical activity.

Sometimes hormone problems cause obesity and overweight. The most common among them is hypothyroidism. This is a condition in which the thyroid gland doesn’t make enough thyroid hormone. Lack of thyroid hormone will slow down your metabolism and cause weight gain.

Certain medicines may cause you to gain weight. These medicines can slow the rate at which your body burns calories, increase your appetite, or cause your body to hold on to extra water, all of which can lead to weight gain.

Age is another factor responsible for obesity and overweight. As you get older, you tend to lose muscle, especially if you’re less active. Muscle loss can slow down the rate at which your body burns calories. If you don’t reduce your calorie intake as you get older, you may gain weight.

During pregnancy, women gain weight so that the baby gets proper nourishment and develops normally. After giving birth, some women find it difficult to lose the weight. This may lead to overweight or obesity, especially after a few pregnancies.

Lack of proper sleep may also contribute to overweight or obese. People who report sleeping 5 hours a night are much more likely to become obese compared to people who sleep 7–8 hours a night. People who sleep fewer hours also seem to prefer eating foods that are higher in calories and carbohydrates, which can lead to overeating, weight gain, and obesity over time.

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Major Causes of Obesity

Dec 28, 2008
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Obesity is mainly the result of overeating and excess consumption of sweet and processed foods accompanied by the lack of adequate physical activity. An average healthy person generally takes food just enough to meet the requirements of his energy expenditure. As a result of this, his weight remains stable. But, for some reason, if this balance is lost, the weight no longer remains stable. The imbalance between the food intake and the energy expenditure is responsible for causing obesity. Let discuss in brief the major causes of obesity:

- Most of the experts hold the view that the genetic factors play role in developing obesity. On the other hand, some experts believe that a person inherits only the structure, and the role of genetic factor is limited only to the structure of the body and it does not extend to the obesity. Thereafter obesity develops depending upon factors like eating habits, way of life and environment.

- In modern society, some people eat not only to satisfy their hunger, but sometimes to enjoy and relish tasty dishes. This factor also plays an important role in causing obesity. It is a popular way to try to find an easy solution to serious problems and tensions of life through food. Sense of insecurity, depression and failure generate tendency to eat more and more.

- Malfunctioning of endocrine glands is rarely a cause of obesity. In cases of some children, Frohlich’s syndrome, a disorder of the pituitary gland causes obesity. Accumulation of fat is characteristic in such cases. It generally accumulates around chest and bottoms. Genital organs of such children remain underdeveloped.

- Sometimes, inadequate secretion of thyroid gland brings down the metabolism of fat and develops obesity.

- Cushing’s syndrome can also sometimes cause obesity in middle aged women. In this syndrome, fat accumulates on head, trunk and around neck; while arms and legs remain thin.

- Less secretion of testicular hormones can also sometimes cause obesity. In cases of such men, fat accumulates on their chest, buttocks and thighs. Sometimes, in case of women, disorders of ovarian secretions are also linked with obesity.

- Relation between obesity and hypo-secretion of the pancreas is very well known. Most of the diabetic patients are obese. It is significant that by reducing their weight such patients derive a lot of relief or can even reverse the disease.

Lack of physical exertion also plays crucial role in developing obesity. Fat people lack the necessary physical exertion. About 300 calories can be burnt even if a person walks only 3 miles a day. Thus, it is imperative that those who wish to succeed in their efforts to lose excess fat have to increase their physical activities.

- Sometimes, the weight gained during the pregnancy does not get reduced after delivery. In cases of some women, there is a weight gain at the time of menopause and thereafter.

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Major Causes of Obesity

Nov 17, 2008
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