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Why Obesity Has Risen So Much in the Last 40 Years and The Health Problems It Creates

30th March, 2010 - Posted by health news - No Comments

The obesity rate in the United States is rising rapidly and is a thing that has many doctors very concerned. The medical community are guessing some states will have a rate of 50% of their residents being obese by the year 2011. This was never a problem forty years ago and a lot of our society lifestyle changes are to blame for this highly rising obesity rate going up. Obesity creates a lot of issues such as heart attacks, diabetes, hip and Rockford knee pain, hypertension and high cholesterol. The lack of exercise and increase in being sedentary is also creating new health problems like Rockford carpal tunnel syndrome from sitting at a computer all day, increased BMI factor with more fat percentage than muscle on a body, and poor posture from being hunched over the computer or lounging around on the couch all day.

The rate of obesity in America back in the 1960’s was at 13% and by the year 2000, it had risen to 31% with educated guesses of it reaching to 50% of the population in certain areas in the next few years. Being overweight, obese or morbidly obese which is over 100 pounds over your healthy weight is causing a great deal of health problems in Americans. One of the largest problems has to do with the heart and diabetes. Having so much extra weight can cause a great deal of strain on your heart and if you are consuming high fat foods everyday this will clog all of your arteries leading to your heart putting you at a high risk for a heart attack or heart disease.

Diabetes is also increased a lot due to the rise in obesity in this nation. In the past it was rare to see a child with diabetes related to weight gain as it was mainly a health problem that plagued overweight adults. Now, kids are being diagnosed with this adult onset type of diabetes due to obesity. Some of the symptoms of diabetes are the frequent need to urinate, dry skin, blurry vision, numbness and tingling in the legs and arms and extreme fatigue. If left untreated, you could die from diabetes.

With so many people spending hours and hours at their computers for work or for fun, there are new issues that are increasing from that and being inactive. A large rise in carpal tunnel syndrome has occurred from typing on a computer keyboard all day long causing overuse pain on this part of the hands. This was not a problem back in the 60’s and 70’s and now is a very common problem. Also being overweight and not active has caused a many people to have pain in their joints, particularly in their knees and hips. That extra weight is putting too much pressure on the joints and the lack of exercise gives no muscle strength to help these joints to be strong.

The need to {stop|reverse] this obesity epidemic is urgent with more and more Americans suffering serious health problems from their unhealthy lifestyles.