Monday, July 27, 2009

Knowing What Causes Obesity Can Help Prevent Some Weight Gain

By Sarah Gardner

In a world in which obesity is reaching epidemic proportions, it is becoming absolutely crucial that the science and health professionals take a serious look at the causes of obesity in order to bring a halt to the increasing numbers of morbidly obese individuals.

One of the major issues in health care today is the skyrocketing prices associated with treating elevated blood pressure, diabetes, and cardiac issues -all of which are closely associated with obesity. Since medical doctors and hospitals are now treating higher numbers of obese patients than ever, it's very clear that the causes for obesity must be found.

With the amount of Obese people ever on the rise, the health care needs for this segment of the population has gone up as well. In fact, today about 60% of adults are overweight, and many of them are medically obese. This trend is particularly alarming in young people, as over 13% of kids today are medically obese. These numbers reflect a massive spike since 1980, as these statistics have almost tripled.

The cost of treating obesity and it's related conditions is tremendous. Also, many people still die obesity related deaths that could be prevented if the patient would reduce their overall weight by 16%. The medical community, as well as many other community groups, are making serious efforts to lower the numbers of obese members of our society, and therefore eliminate many medical issues for these members of our society.

The most important cause of obesity was once the simple genetics of family heredity. Some people are just born with a natural tendency in their genetics to carry excess weight. This is something that has been studied with great intensity for many years but is not something that can currently be corrected or modified. However, it is not the cause of the obesity epidemic that is sweeping our nation.

Today we are realizing that a person's food intake and food choices are clearly causing obesity. Even though it appears that just changing food consumption is easy enough, actually putting that into practice long term is much harder.

It would seem that if a patient were told that the cause of their obesity is the food that they eat, it would seem easy for them to change the pattern. However, it isn?t. Individuals establish their eating habits over many years, beginning in their childhood and continuing through adulthood, changing these habits is a very difficult thing to do. If that seems odd, consider smokers. It is a known fact that smoking kills and still millions of people smoke every day without regard to the final effect of their choice.

Obesity is not a disease that strikes suddenly and out of the blue, but one that happens over time. The difficulty level of exchanging bad eating habits for good ones is one of the main reasons obesity flourishes. Diet centers like Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, and L.A. Weight Loss are trying to help people learn how to eat right and make healthy lifestyle changes so that they can avoid gaining weight again.

However, it is in implementing these new skills that bring about the weight loss changes and many individuals lack the will power to follow the programs. It just proves that even though someone may know the cause of their obesity, changing it takes more than just the knowledge and skills but also the structure and guidance to make those changes a reality.

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