That weight loss programs are important because fat is a killer is becoming more apparent everyday in the medical research fields. There are so many organ systems affected by the different processes that both contribute to obesity and are a direct result of obesity that it will take ages to sort out all the complexities. Obesity is both an associated comorbidity of a lot of things and also a direct cause of many things that are serious and life threatening diseases. Lets talk about a few of the major ones like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.
If you aren’t convinced to start a weight loss program read on! Heart disease, caused by coronary atherosclerosis, has several risk factors that are directly related to being obese. High cholesterol and high fat diets contribute to atherosclerotic pathophysiology and are very associated with obesity. Hypertension is another major risk factor for heart disease and is much more common in an obese person. And lastly diabetes, namely type II or adult onset diabetes, is another huge risk factor for heart disease and affects mostly obese people whose bodies have lost the sensitivity to insulin. This combination of events in an obese pt. make obesity a very high-risk, but gladly a modifiable risk factor for early death secondary to heart disease.
Diabetes is already mentioned as being in large part caused by obesity. I just want to list some of the other morbidities that an obese person can look forward to other than heart disease. Diabetics who don’t control their sugars have renal failure and eventually are dialysis dependent. They go blind due to retinal vascular complications, they have painful neuropathies, or they simply can’t feel their legs which eventually ulcerate and require amputation. A weight loss program sounds nice now doesn’t it?
