Dangers of Being Obese

By Ashok Manikoth

I have a lot of relatives who are obese, and all of them did not take it seriously till some problem took them to the door of a doctor. This article is just to create some awareness that a time bomb is silently ticking for people who are obese.

A great person once said "people think that if they feel good they are healthy but there was no such thing as a healthy fat person only a fat person who has not fallen ill yet".

So let us look into the factors that can cause damage for a person who is obese. When a person is obese the chances of developing diabetes and hypertension are very high and together this deadly quartet leads to a condition called metabolic syndrome (MTS). People with MTS have very poor metabolism which could lead to a heart attack or stroke.

The main cause of MTS is obesity, especially deposits of fat around the internal organs.

The fat gets broken down into free fatty acids that blunt the action of insulin, which the pancreas produces to keep blood sugar levels constant simply put, it can lead to diabetes.

When the amount of fat in the blood increases, deposits build up in the arteries. Both diabetes and obesity raise blood pressure, thus increasing the chances of a cardiovascular disorder or even heart attack.

A crude way of measuring ones risk due to obesity is to measure the waistline if the waste line is more than 102cm in men and 88cm in women then the chance of danger lurking round the corner is very high.

There is no miracle diet for obesity. Moderation in intake of food and taking unsaturated fat instead of saturated, making fish as an item in ones weekly menu. Eating a lot of green vegetables and roughage with a little amount of fruits will help a lot. Oats are a good item to add to the list as they have a high quantity of soluble and insoluble fibre which does wonders to control cholesterol and also induce a good free motion.

Exercise, long walks which extend more than 40 minutes are also helpful. It has been found that any exercise to start breaking down fat i.e. use ones body fat as fuel should be more than 20 minutes. The first 20 minutes the body gets its fuel for energy from the muscles only when it finds that the activity is longer does it start using fat for its energy source.

A little bit of common sense and getting lucky in starting the counter measures in time can save a lot of heart ache in the coming days. Live life to the hilt; just see that the sword is not thrust in a lard of fat.

I am involved in outsourcing home based on-line projects and web designing. Through these articles I would like to share what I have learned with the rest of the members.

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