America is currently facing a crisis that is one of the most prevalent health-related issues in this country’s history: obesity. According to Drs. Massetti, Dietz, and Richardson in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the effects of being overweight stretch far past simply an expanding waistline; there are serious ramifications to your health and life, including an increase in your mortality rate. In this article, we will discuss the scary facts associated with being overweight, as well as what can be done to limit our risks.
The Stats
The statistics behind the weight issue in America are staggering. Obesity has been on the rise in America for over fifty years. That’s five whole decades of this problem occurring unceasingly. Right now, over 70% of adults and nearly one-third of adolescents and children are either overweight or obese. Kids who are obese as children have an increased risk of adulthood obesity, which means that their risk for serious health problems is compounded.
Obesity also takes a chunk out of the taxpayers’ wallet. Healthcare costs are astronomical, and obesity plays a large role in that. Thousands of studies have been conducted and they all, for the most part, say the same thing: this situation is dire.
Increased Cancer Risk By 40%
What you may not know is that being overweight leads to an increased cancer risk, in addition to cardiovascular disease, Type-2 Diabetes and many other illnesses. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 40% of all cancers may be related to being overweight or obese.[1] Over one thousand studies found evidence that sufficiently indicated a link between obesity and thirteen types of cancers. Cancers of the colon, rectum, stomach, liver, pancreas, kidney, ovary, gallbladder, uterus, and thyroid all have links to obesity. Postmenopausal breast cancer, multiple myeloma, and cancer of the esophagus are all related to obesity. These horrific illnesses, which lead to so many deaths per year, all have roots in an unhealthy weight. The statistics prove that as well.
The CDC has been highly focused on this crisis. They assessed the trend between being overweight and cancer and found that over 630,000 people were diagnosed in 2014 as having a cancer linked to being overweight or obese. This number comprises over 55% of all cancers in women and 24% of cancers among men. Nearly half of all cancer affecting individuals under the age of 65 are associated with an unhealthy weight.
These cancers are also affecting young people at higher and higher rates. The toll taken by being overweight and obese is also wreaking havoc for people earlier in their lives. Young adults and adolescents are feeling the damage caused by weight problems at a young age from losing loved ones to obesity-caused cancer and diseases, not getting the right nutrition in their own diet, thus developing health problems and even from bullying and body-shaming in school and social media.
What Can Smoking Teach Us?
The idea that smoking might actually be able to teach us something about obesity seems contradictory, but it actually isn’t. A brief history lesson explains why. In 1964, the surgeon general released a report about the severe health consequences associated with smoking. Clinicians took action, counseling patients to avoid tobacco, referring patients to programs to help them quit, and aiding them in quitting by giving information on methods to help deal with tobacco cravings.
This hands-on, full-out approach worked. Cigarette smoking has hit an all-time low, as fewer and fewer people smoke. This type of approach is necessary to halt America’s obesity problem.
Clinical Intervention: Hope and a Solution
The bottom line is that America is currently facing a crisis. Being significantly overweight is strongly linked to cancer, cardiovascular disease and Type-2 Diabetes, in addition to many other medical conditions and the trend is continuing to worsen. However, there is hope. Once the problem is identified, acknowledged and addressed, the medical consequences of being overweight can be prevented and in many cases reversed through effective sustained weight loss.
That’s where the doctors and the entire CardioMender,MD Team come in. CardioMender,MD Weight Loss Specialists is South Florida’s most trusted medically supervised weight loss program. We provide customized, safe, rapid weight loss and the means to keep it off. At CardioMender,MD a doctor is ALWAYS available. Start losing weight today, under the supervision of Chief Medical Officer Barry H. Schiff, MD, a board certified, 32-year veteran, Board-Certified Cardiologist and Internist. Dr. D. Allen Young is a Board-Certified Obesity Medicine Physician and Internist.
To find out more about how we can help you reach your goals using proven strategies, please visit us at www.cardiomenderweightloss.com or call us at 954-628-3802 to set up your appointment today.
Massetti GM, Dietz WH, Richardson LC. Excessive Weight Gain, Obesity, and CancerOpportunities for Clinical Intervention. JAMA. Published online October 03,2017. doi:10.1001/jama.2017.15519
[1] 10/16/2017 CDC: Forty percent of cancers linked to overweight or obesity | Internal Medicine News
http://www.mdedge.com/internalmedicinenews/article/149108/obesity/cdc-forty-percent-cancers-linked-overweight-or-obesity?print=1 1/3
LATEST NEWS CDC: Forty percent of cancers linked to overweight or obesity
Publish date: October 10, 2017
By: Ian Lacy , Internal Medicine News
▼ Vitals
FROM MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY WEEKLY REPORT
