"In 2009 approximately 100,500 cancers were attributed to excess body fat."
I don't know about you, but I never really attributed obesity to cancer. Never really thought about it. I know that obesity can lead to diabetes, heart disease, gall bladder disease, etc. Just never thought about the fact that it can contribute to your risk of developing cancer. Cancer is all around me in my family history. My mom's parents both died from forms of cancer. My dad's mom was a breast cancer survivor. My mom has had skin cancer removed. That's a little too many instances of cancer for me to ignore! Yet another reason why I need to get this weight off!
I already mentioned diabetes, but here is a little factoid about obesity and diabetes for you to chew on.
"More than 85 percent of people with type 2 diabetes are overweight."Again, there is a family history of diabetes. My dad's mom was diabetic. I am currently insulin resistant. This can lead to diabetes. The cure = weight loss.
Gallbladder disease. Yep. Been there, done that. I spent July 4th in the emergency room feeling like I was dying. The culprit? A bum gallbladder. Two days later I had it removed. Apparently people who are overweight produce more cholesterol and this leads to the build up of stones in the gallbladder. Mine was also enlarged, which is another common occurrence in overweight people.
We all know that obesity can cause heart disease not only because of the excess strain it puts on your heart to carry all that extra weight around, but also because of the additional health problems that obesity causes. For example, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Having high cholesterol increases your chances of blockages in your arteries, which can break off and travel causing strokes and heart attacks. If the blockages are in your heart vessels, this can lead to heart attack and sudden death. High blood pressure only exacerbates this problem by helping to push those blood clots around. It also puts you at a high risk for hemorrhagic strokes in which blood vessels in your brain burst and you bleed internally. Heart disease is rampant in my family as well. Especially on my dad's side. His mother died from heart failure and now my dad is in heart failure. He is currently on the transplant list waiting on a new heart. I definitely don't want to go through what he is going through nor do I want to put my family through that pain and stress. It's scary and it's depressing and you just feel helpless. I don't know if I will end up with this when I get older, but I know I'm going to try my hardest to stall it if nothing else.
Sleep apnea is another big problem in obese individuals. If there is a large amount of fat stored in the neck area, this makes the airway smaller and thus makes it more difficult for the person to breath properly during sleep. A lot of people don't feel that this is a big deal, having sleep apnea, but if left untreated it can lead to some serious problems including heart failure.
Osteoartritis. Carrying around all that extra weight puts a strain on our joints. I know my poor knees crackle and pop all the time when I'm climbing stairs. They say losing 5% of your body weight can yield a slight improvement. Over time, if the joints are continuously subjected to the extreme pressure and weight of your body, the cartilage will begin to wear away and it will become very painful.
Fatty liver disease. This is exactly what it says. It's a build up of fat in the liver cells that interferes with the livers function. I don't know if you are aware of how important your liver is....but you can't live without it! There is a reason why the transplant list for livers is long!
These are just a FEW of the complications that can occur because of obesity. These are the main ones and each of them can be prevented. Losing weight is just one piece of the puzzle. But for me, right now it's the main piece. Once I get through this obstacle, then I will tackle the others. I have too much that I want to do in life to be plagued by any of these things. If I can do something to lower my risk of developing any of these things, then I'm going to do my best to do it!
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