How Being Sedentary and The Availability of Fast Foods Has Caused The Obesity rate in America To Rise
The obesity rate in the United States is rising rapidly and is a thing that has many doctors very concerned. The medical community are guessing some states will have a rate of 50% of their residents being technically obese by the year 2011. This was never an issue 4 decades ago and a lot of our society lifestyle changes are to cause for this rapid obesity rate going up. Obesity causes many problems like heart attacks, diabetes, hip and Rockford knee pain, hypertension and high cholesterol. The lack of exercise and increase in being sedentary is also causing new health problems such as Rockford carpal tunnel syndrome from typing at a computer all day, increased BMI factor with more fat percentage than muscle on a person, and poor posture from being hunched over the computer or lounging around on the couch all day.
The rate of obesity in America back in the 1960′s was at 13% and by the year 2000, it had risen to 31% with predictions of it reaching to 50% of the population in certain areas in the next couple of years. Being overweight, obese or morbidly obese which is over 100 pounds over your healthy weight is causing a large number of health issues in Americans. One of the biggest problems has to do with the heart and diabetes. Having so much extra weight can cause a great deal of strain on your heart and if you are eating high fat foods on a daily basis this will clog all of your arteries going to your heart putting you at a high risk for a heart attack or heart disease.
Diabetes is also a problem due to the rise in obesity in this nation. In the past it was unusual to see a child with diabetes as a result of weight gain as it was typically a health problem that plagued overweight adults. Now, children are being diagnosed with this adult onset type of diabetes due to obesity. Some of the symptoms of diabetes are the frequent need to urinate, dry skin, blurry vision, numbness and tingling in the legs and arms and extreme fatigue. If left untreated, it could be fatal.
With so many people spending hours and hours at their computers for work or for pleasure, there are new issues that are increasing from that and being sedentary. A big increase in carpal tunnel syndrome has occurred from typing on a computer keyboard all day long causing a strain on this part of the hands. This was not an issue back in the 60′s and 70′s and now is a very common issue. Also being fat and sedentary has caused a lot of people to have pain in their joints, especially their knees and hips. That extra weight is putting too much pressure on the joints and the lack of exercise gives no muscle strength to help these joints to be strong.
The need to {stop|reverse] this obesity epidemic is urgent with more and more people suffering serious health issues from their unhealthy lifestyles.
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