Obesity: short report and some figures

A short article on obesity in general.

Obesity is a disease that results in a disproportionate concentration of body fat harmful to health.

The most recent figures, dating from October 16, 2012, are alarming. They reveal that 6.9 million French people are affected by this disease, ie 15% of the population, and a 35% increase between 2009 and 2012 in obesity among young people aged 18 to 24.

This disease can be diagnosed in particular thanks to the BMI, or Body Mass Index. It is necessary to obtain it to divide the weight (in kg) by the height squared (m²). If we obtain a result between 18.5 and 25, the corpulence is then considered “normal”, from 25 to 30, it is a question of overweight which reflects an unsuitable eating behavior which can subsequently lead to obesity, being between 30 and 40. Beyond 40, we speak the situation is considered very dangerous, we then speak of morbid obesity.

The consequences of this disease (because it is indeed a disease) are dramatic, because it can unfortunately lead to many others such as diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea, cholesterol, even going as far as to serious cardiovascular problems.

However, if obesity can be recognized and diagnosed, fortunately it can also be cured. This disease requires medical care, because it is strongly inadvisable to chain draconian diets which, failing to seek real weight loss, often leads to nutritional deficiencies and promotes the perverse effects of diets, more familiarly known as “d ‘yo-yo effect’; moreover, this type of diet does not help in any way to re-educate oneself to a healthy diet.

There are also much more radical solutions that we are discovering with the rise of obesity surgery. These are interventions such as gastroplasty, the bypass which aim to reduce the amount of food that can be ingested by the patient, or even liposuction which allows to reshape the silhouette by removing excess fat. But you have to be careful because these operations are not trivial, they are under general anesthesia and therefore represent a danger.

To conclude, we can therefore say that obesity represents a real danger to public health. It is possible to cure it but it is all the same necessary to take preventive and educational measures to limit the risks and encourage from an early age the rules of a healthy diet and lifestyle.