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Effortless Weight Loss and Diabetes Prevention
by Dr Jagannath dixit book Chapter
Chapter 2 : Obesity
India has become a capital for many non communicable diseases Such as obesity, hypertension, diabetes, heart attacks and stroke.
Obesity itself is a disease but more importantly it is a risk factor for above mentioned diseases. Insulin plays a major role in making us obese.
Frequent consumption of food containing carbohydrates results in raised level of insulin in our blood. This raised insulin is responsible for all the diseases mentioned earlier.
It has become a business for some to reduce other’s weights! Unfortunately in many cases it’s just a money loss without any weight loss!! As a result people get frustrated.
The method of weight loss advocated in this book is simple and without any expense. You do not have to consult a doctor or spend on costly instruments, specific nutrients or gadgets.
The best part is, one can follow this method throughout his or her life without any difficulty.
This measure which reduces insulin level in the blood will not only reduce weight but will also prevent or at-least postpone the dreaded diseases mentioned earlier.
Hence this measure is very valuable from public health point of view.
Late Dr. Shrikant Jichkar strived hard to propagate this simple measure through his lectures with lot of urge throughout Maharashtra and also India.
Dr.Jagannath Dixit has attempted to spread the light of the lamp lit by late Dr. Jichkar.
This movement is marching ahead in the form of ''India free of obesity and diabetes'' campaign.
Obesity
Storage of excess fats in the body is generally termed as obesity. Fats are stored in the body in specific cells called as adipocytes or fat cells.
The fat cells are present below the skin and also in the membrane called mesentery in the abdomen and store fats.
Similarly fats are also stored around various organs of the body in these fat cells.
Fats are also present in blood as well as cells of liver.
Cells of the body can use either glucose or fatty acids obtained from fats for getting energy.
Obesity results when either the size or number of the fat cells or both increase.
Obesity can be diagnosed by measuring Body Mass Index (BMI).
Though excess fat accumulation is the usual cause of weight gain, sometimes it can be due to abnormal development of muscles or retention of fluid in the body Obesity is the most prevalent health problem associated with faulty eating habits.
It is an equally important problem for developed as well as developing countries.
The problem exists bab ia children and adults.
Obesity is a risk factor for many diseases Lack of physical activities and change
in eating habits are the two causes for the rising problem of obesity in industrialitzed countries Overwight and obesity is the fith leading cause of death in the world.
The magnitade of this problem almost incresed six times in the world froms 19Bo to so15 In so 15, there were 64 5 crore overweight individuals in the world.
In 2010, 4 crore children below the age of five years were ovenweight.
Earlier it was thought to be an issue of high income countries, but now it is becoming eident in poor countries too.
There are 35 crore overwright childrea in developing countries and the number for developed countries is 8o lakh.
There is an association between childhood obesity and obesity in adulthood and premature deaths and disability Obesity adds to the risk of respiratorny problems, fractures, hypertension and depression.
Every year 28 lakh adults in the world die due to overweight or obesity Obesity or overweight contribute towards 44% of diabetes, 23% of heart attacks and 7 to 41% of cancers in the world tn the world there are more deaths due tooverweight and obesity than undernutrition.
In Iodia a survey was conducted in zoo8 to study the risk factors for chronic non-commmunscable
Diseases
This survey was conducted in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and Mizoram.
The data showed that the prevalence of overweight and obesity was high in all age groups except the age group of 15-24 years.
Percentage of overweight men is higher than women but its inverse in case of obesity.
The prevalence is high in urban population as compared to rural population.
The prevalence is less in people with less education and those who are engaged in occupations which involve lot of manual work.
As per statistics of 2015, in India, in age group of 20 years and above 13% men and 2.5% of women are obese. 981ac men and 2 crore women are obese in India.
In 1975 our rank in obesity was 19th in the world. Our rank is 5th in men and 3rd in women in 2015!
Obesity is a risk factor for many diseases.
Some of these are enlisted below:
- Brain hemorrhage (Stroke)
- Hypertension
- Diabetes
- Hyperlipidemia (raised level of fats in blood)
- Cataract
- Liver disease
- Disease of gall bladder
- Arthritis
- Gout
-Respiratory problems
- Some cancers
- Menstrual iregularities
- infertility
Though obesity is a risk factor for many diseases, the risk depends upon the distribution of fat deposited in the body.
As per distribution of fats in the body, obesity is classified as central obesity and peripheral obesity.
These are respectively cealled as apple shaped obesity and pear shaped obesity.
The words Android obesity is used for central obesity and gynoid obesity for peripheral
obesity.
The relationship between obesity and maturity onset diabetes is known since decades.
The association between insulin resistance and obesity is evident in men and women of different age groups and weights.
Many epidemiological studies have proved that the increasing prevalence of insulin resistance and diabetes is directly proportional to the increasing prevalence of obesity.
Above the waist
Below the waist
Compared to fat cells below the skin, the fat cells in abdomen have more insulin receptors
(Adrenergic receptors) and as a result they are more active metabolically.
Insulin's effect of degrading fats has more hindrance in abdominal fat cells The presence of 11-beta hydroxy steroid dehydrogenase type l'enzyme in abdominal fats results in more production of the hormone cortisol at local level.
Causes of obesity:
There are many causes of obesity Some of these are as given below-
Age :
Obesity can occur at any age but as age increases prevalence of obesity increases.
The babies having more weight at birth are at more risk of becoming obese in adulthood. Out of all obese un individuals around 1/3 are obese from childhood.
Obese infants have more fat cells as compared to other infants.
It is more difficult to treat obesity that results from more number of fat cells (Hyperplastic obesity) than the obesity resulting from excess fat stored in fat cells (Hypertrophicobesity)
Sex :
Men have more prevalence of overweight than women but women have more prevalence
of obesity than men.
Men gain maximum weight in the age group of 29 to 35 years whereas women
gain maximum weight from 45 to 49 years i.e. post menopausal age.
Each pregnancy is associated with 1 Kg increase in the weight of a woman. However, repeated pregnancies actually cause weight loss as is seen in many developing countries.
Genetic factors :
Twin studies have shown that genetic factors are responsible for causation of obesity.
Twins living in varied environmental conditions have similar weights proving the role of
genetic factors in obesity.
Moreover the pattern of fat distribution depends to the extent of 50% on genetic factors.
Lack of physical activities :
Regular physical activities and manual work can help to prevent obesity.
Occupation involving no physical activities and indulgence into inactive entertainment like
watching television promote the occurrence of overweight and obesity.
People doing daily exercises become obese if they abandon exercises but continue to take the same diet.
Lack of physical activities makes the person obese and due to obesity person avoids physical activities. This is a vicious cycle.
Socio-economic status :
There is an inverse relationship between socio-economic status and obesity.
However, in some rich countries, obesity is more prevalent in lower socio-economic strata.
Eating habits :
A person develops his eating habits during childhood. The habits such as eating in between two meals, eating sweets, eating fried or junk foods are a few of such habits.
The nutrients in the diet, the frequency of eating and the calories one gets from the diet are the factors responsible for causation of obesity.
If one consumes a diet providing more calories than required for a longer duration, then the level of fats in the blood increases.
This fat is then stored in the fat cells in the form of triglycerides.
Forceful and unscrupulous advertisement campaigns in media are responsible for increasing sales of food items that are rich in calories but poor in nutritive value.
If a child with daily calorie requirement of 2000 calories obtains 100 extra calories from his diet everyday, then he will put on 5 Kg weight in one year.
Race:
In some ethnic groups, the prevalence of obesity and its complications is much higher
than other groups.
The effect of specific genetic factors after adapting to modern life style by these people may be the underlying cause
Medicines :
Corticosteroid hormone, contraceptive pills and insulin are a few medicines that
cause weight gain.
How is obesity measured?
Various methods are available for measuring obesity and overweight. The most common of these is the Body Mass Index or BMI.
It is given by following formula
Weight in kilogram/(Height in meter)2
If a person has weight of 66 Kg and height of 1.7 meters then his BMI is 22.83.
World Health Organization has given following classification to identify risks associated with BMI. It is recommended that in Asian people the BMI should be less than 23.
One limitation of BMI is that it cannot differentiate the weight gain due to fat deposition from that due to muscle development.
In different ethnic groups the percentage of fats is different for same BMI values.
Similarly, up to the age of 60-65 years the percentage of fat in the body goes on increasing.
For same BMI values the percentage of fats in women is more than that of men.
