What Being Obese Can Do to Your Body – Risks Of Being Overweight

Being overweight or obese can have many negative health effects on the human body and increasing the risk of developing a serious illness.

One problem that is growing in people that are overweight is the risk of developing a psychological illness such as social anxiety and/or depression. This is because some people who are overweight, will start to suffer from a low self esteem and thus will have a bad self image. Depression and anxiety often go hand in hand, so if you suffer from one, you are likely to suffer from the other as they seem to fuel the other one. When people are depressed or anxious they may tend to eat more, which will only make the persons weight problems worse, making it a vicious circle. However being depressed and/ or anxious could also be the cause of the persons over eating as well.

It is also believed to be linked with because of the increased weight of the person. Parts of the body that tend to be most affected include the hands, hips, back and the knees.

In the West, heart disease and stroke are the number one killer, in both men and women. Being overweight puts a lot of pressure on the heart, which makes certain vital functions of the body work harder. Most people who are overweight will most likely have high blood pressure, which in return will raise cholesterol levels in the blood. Overweight people are more likely to die of a heart attack or heart related illness than people with a normal BMI, and can also be a leading cause of a stroke as well. Just being overweight slightly will make you more breathless doing normal things, and running can be a major problem and it can cause breathing problems.

You are twice as likely to develop Type 2 diabetes if you are overweight than people who are of a normal BMI. Type 2 diabetes is the most common type of diabetes and it works by your body losing the ability to control the blood sugar levels. This type of diabetes can go on to cause further problems like premature death, kidney problems, stroke and can even cause blindness.

Being overweight has been strongly linked to developing several types of cancers. For women these are: uterus, gallbladder, breast, ovary, cervix, colon and the oesophagus. Men are more likely to develop the following when overweight: breast, colon, prostate and rectum. Although there has been a strong link with being overweight and developing types of cancer, it is not known whether for some types, it is actually the increased weight or the extra calories in the diet. Either way, it seems weight is a strong link.

Gallbladder disease is also more likely in those who are overweight, and the higher the persons weight the higher the risk.

Finally, other problems that an overweight person may be at a higher risk from are: skin problems, increased sweating, sleep apnoea- where whilst asleep the person stops breathing for short amounts of time, gout and increased thirst.

It really is shocking the amount of illnesses and problems that a person who is overweight can develop, some even life threatening and will kill.

If you liked this article you may like the following health related articles:

http://healthmad.com/weight-loss/how-many-calories-should-i-be-eating-per-day/

http://healthmad.com/conditions-and-diseases/helpful-ways-to-keep-hydrated/

http://healthmad.com/weight-loss/five-steps-to-losing-weight/