FATTIES of Europe

Heart bears the burden!

Heart disease is one of the most common causes of death and most important consequence of obesity is heart disease.  The cost to the state of medical ill-effects stemming from obesity is not confined to those resulting from heart disease, high blood pressure, strokes, cardiovascular disorders and type 2 diabetes.

People who are obese are more likely to suffer from gall bladder disease, osteoarthritis and chest troubles as well as cancer of the breast, uterus, prostate and colon.

Obesity is preventable; the medical way of deciding whether patients are overweight is to work out their body mass index, which is the weight in KG divided by the patients height in metres squared.  If the answer is more than 25, a person is overweight, if the answer is more than 30 he or she is clinically obese.

A simpler way is to measure the waist, any measurement over 40inch (102cm) in men or 35inch (88cm in women, is a warning of obesity and medical troubles ahead.

What the immediate cause of obesity the underlying reason is that there is an imbalance between the number of calories being taken in through food and drink and the number of calories being expended from exercise.  The greater amount of fat the greater the chance of diabetes, heart disease and increase cost to the Treasury and the NHS Care which is already at a stretch.

Just as some strains of our livestock put on weight easily – they are so called good converters – so do members of families grow fat even though they have the appetite of a sparrow.  At least 70% of overweight people have at least one overweight parent.  Working class people are twice as likely to be overweight as members of professions.  We need to make ourselves more aware of what we are putting in our bodies, not only for ourselves but for our children as well.

Fast food route to becoming fatties of Europe:

The NHS needs to take action urgently to tackle the dramatic rise in obesity which is now costing the NHS well over £2.5 billion a year.

The levels of obesity in the UK has trebled since 1980 and 1 in 4 adults are overweight and a staggering 1 in 4 children under the age of 14yrs is now over weight.

The UK is now the fattest nation in Europe and the problem is getting worse, we are fast catching up with the obesity percentages of population in the USA the obese capital of the world.

The national audit office has claimed in the past that many GPs have little or no idea how to handle the problem and treatment of obesity is patchy.  It calls it has called for national guidelines for doctors on management and treatment of obesity and even accused GPs of refusing to get involved with the tackling of the issue.  Obesity has been accounted for over 30,000 premature deaths per year, this is a serious problem.

The national Audit Office has also found that the health and employment related cost could be as high as £4 billion.  The NHS spends over £500 million a year on treating heart disease, cancer and hypertension.  And a further £2 billion is lost through days off work and premature death.

The National Health Organisation estimates that in 1998 obesity accounted for 18million days of sick leave at the economic cost od £1.3 billion.

30years ago only 8% of women were obese and 6% of men in the UK, but shockingly it has jumped up to 21% and 17% respectively.

Eating patterns and increasingly sedentary lifestyles are key factors; people are eating higher energy fatty foods, including fast food consumed outside the home.  The average person in the UK watched more than 26hrs of TV a week in the mid 1990s compared with 13hrs a week in the 1960s.

My personal view is for schools, hospitals and local councils to co-operate more and more to ensure children and adults are encouraged to exercise and eat healthier food.  Children should be more encouraged to cycle and walk to school where safe to do so and like many schools already implementing a co-ordinated supervised walk to and from school.  Parents should also start looking closer to home and see how their decisions are making their children fat.

Category: Fitness Advice