What are the health risks of being overweight or obese?
Weighing more than is normal for your height can increase your risks of countless diseases and conditions.
- More than 80 percent of people with type 2 diabetes are overweight.
- People who are overweight are more likely to suffer from high blood pressure, high levels of blood fats, and LDL cholesterol, which are all risk factors for heart disease and stroke.
- Deaths from heart disease and stroke are almost twice the rate for blacks as compared to whites.
Is it possible to still be obese and still be healthy?
There has been an ongoing debate about whether or not someone can be fit and healthy, even though their body weight is outside a normal range.
So can someone be obese and healthy? According to HealthDay, a new study by Korean researchers says no – an obese person with normal vital signs, including blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels is still at risk for heart disease.
The report was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
In the study of more than 14,000 men and women, aged 30 to 59, those who were obese had more plaque buildup in their arteries, putting them at greater risk for heart disease and stroke than people of normal weight, the researchers found.
“People have been trying to work out whether there is a group of people that are obese and healthy,” said Dr. Rishi Puri, medical director of the atherosclerosis imaging core laboratory at the Cleveland Clinic and author of an accompanying journal editorial.
Puri also noted:
“We have an enormous challenge at a public health and individual level in dealing with obesity-related disorders. Being obese doesn’t just affect the heart. Being obese means you’re more likely to have joint disease, psychiatric disorders and cancers,” Puri said.
He added that, over the next couple of decades, obesity and its consequences will be driving health care costs.
“Even if we find that these particular obese patients don’t have a higher risk of heart disease in the short-term, what are the many other things obesity does to your body?” Puri said. “Are we going to ignore that?”