Obesity
(continued)
- Obesity-related costs in the US add up to nearly $100 billion annually
in costs for weight-loss treatment and the treatment of many serious health
problems caused or worsened by obesity, such as diabetes and cardiovascular
disease.
- Americans spend an estimated $33 billion each year on reduced-fat foods,
diet aids and weight-loss programs.
- Each year, an estimated 300,000 US adults die of causes attributable to
obesity.
- Type II diabetes is nearly 3-4 times more prevalent in overweight adults
than in lean adults.
- The number of deaths from cardiovascular disease is 50 percent higher in
obese people (and 90 percent higher in the severely obese) than in the non-obese.
- Men who are more than 20 percent overweight have a 20-30 percent increase
in death from prostate cancer.
- A recent study in Diabetes Care noted that for every kilogram of
increase in measured weight, the risk of diabetes increased by 4.5 percent.
- A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine stated that
the women in the study who were non-smokers, not overweight, ate properly
and exercised had an 83 percent less chance of developing coronary heart disease
than those who did not adhere to a low-risk lifestyle.
- The heaviest adults are 80 percent more likely to have asthma than the
thinnest ones.
- A weight loss of five to 10 percent in excess body weight, followed by
maintenance of that loss, can reduce risk factors and provide health benefits.
Created: 3/30/2001  - Donnica Moore, M.D.
|