Why Lifestyle Changes Have Caused a large Number of Americans To be Obese
The obesity rate in America is going up rapidly and something that has a lot of physicians quite concerned. The medical community are guessing some states will have a rate of half of their residents being obese by the year 2011. This was never a problem forty years ago and many of our society lifestyle changes are to blame for this highly rising obesity rate going up. Obesity causes many problems like heart attacks, diabetes, hip and Rockford knee pain, hypertension and high cholesterol. The lack of physical movement and increase in being sedentary is also creating new health problems such as Rockford carpal tunnel syndrome from sitting at a computer all day, increased BMI factor with more fat percentage than muscle on a body, and poor posture from being hunched over the computer or lounging around on the couch all day.
The rate of obesity in the United States back in the 1960′s was at 13% and by the year 2000, it was at a whopping 31% with educated guesses of it reaching to 50% of the population in certain areas in the next few years. Being overweight, obese or morbidly obese which is over 100 pounds above your healthy weight is causing a large number of health problems in Americans. One of the largest problems has to do with the heart and diabetes. Being so overweight can cause a lot of strain on your heart and if you are consuming high fat foods everyday this will clog all of your arteries leading to your heart making you 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 rare to see a child with diabetes related to weight gain as it was mainly a health problem that hit overweight adults. Now, children are being diagnosed with this adult onset type of diabetes because they are so overweight. 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, you could die from diabetes.
With so many people spending all day at their computers for work or for pleasure, there are new problems that are rising 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, particularly in their knees and hips. That extra weight is putting a lot of pressure on the joints and the lack of exercise leaves no muscle strength to support these joints to be strong.
The need to stop with more and more people suffering serious health issues from their unhealthy lifestyles.
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