Obesity And Heart Disease

In very simple terms, obesity means having too high a fat quotient. An individual’s body is made up of many different substances including water, protein, a multitude of vitamins and minerals and to differing degrees, fat. Carrying too much fat has a large number of detrimental affects on the human body, especially if that fat is stored for the most part, around the waist. These problems include such things as high blood pressure and cholesterol, diabetes, multiple blood problems that can cause strokes and heart attacks.

Obesity Lowers Your GOOD Cholesterol

Being obese has an affect on HDL which is your good cholesterol; this cholesterol reduces the risk of such things as heart disease and stroke. It can also induce the onset of type II diabetes.

Obesity In The United States

As a whole, the United States is becoming more and more overweight. More individuals are going from overweight to obese and from obese to morbidly obese. With this comes many more risk factors for health and life. Because of this, there is a high percentage of interest in long term, healthy weight loss programs in the private, commercial and medical venues.

Heart disease appears to be directly connected to forms of obesity, making obesity an indicator of heart disease, as individuals that are obese tend to have a much higher risk of certain health issues that lead to heart diseases. Many obese individuals suffer from hypertension, suffers of hypertension are much more likely to have heart disease, however many sufferers of heart disease are suffering only from obesity.

Signs Of Obesity-Related Heart Disease

According to the American Heart Association, the major risk factors connected with heart disease are age (being 65 years or older), gender (males are more likely than females to have heart disease), heredity (If your family has a history of heart disease, you should take that seriously and watch your own health conditions carefully), smoking, high cholesterol levels, high blood pressure levels, lack of exercise, obesity and diabetes. Of all the items listed, obesity has a connection with all but three, and can be a direct cause of many of them. You cannot change the risk factors such as age, gender and heredity, however with everything else you may be able to affect a change.

Obesity And Type II Diabetes

Many people that are type II diabetic can reduce their dependency or completely eliminate their dependency just by changing their diet and loosing weight. High blood pressure and high cholesterol can also be diminished by a change of diet. This change will help you to begin loosing weight and will slowly lower your blood pressure and cholesterol count, doing this will minimize other health risks.

In your quest to loose weight, there are simple things you can do. Set realistic goals and reward yourself when you reach them. If you cheat, don’t beat on yourself or give up, everyone suffers a setback now and again. If you don’t meet your goal, forgive yourself and set a new goal. It’s something to strive for, not something that has to be attained to be successful. Enjoy your food, eat slowly, this will give your taste buds time to fully enjoy the taste and your stomach time to let you know when it’s full. Above all, don’t give up.