Ironically, obesity the disease brought about by overfeeding especially on junk foods has reached epidemic proportions, especially in the US. The overeaten food is converted to fats that are stored under the skin and around large internal body organs such as the heart, lungs and liver. They are also stored around the large blood vessels like arteries and veins reducing their lumen or diameter. This constricts blood flow in these vessels by preventing the peristaltic motion of the vessels muscles. This is what causes the high blood pressure disease.

Losing weight, by a mere 10% can greatly improve your self esteem and change the way you feel about yourself. The most important thing is that you have a positive perspective of life and feel more energized. These are the main benefits associated with losing weight:

1: Keeping off heart ailments

Heart diseases such as stroke, heart attacks and heart failure are the leading death causes in the 21st century. Overweight people face the highest risk of contracting these ailments and losing weight goes a long way in reducing the risk of that happening.

2: Eliminate High blood pressure and angina

These, unlike common opinion, are not diseases but are conditions that contribute heavily to heart ailments among other diseases. They are associated with weighty people. High blood pressure is brought about by the constriction of blood vessels diameter by the deposition of fat around the vessels while angina is chest pain when a part of the heart is denied oxygen. It’s associated with pressure or a squeezing sensation in the chest. It is normally a predecessor to other fatal heart ailments.

3: Keep obesity at bay.

Obesity is a weighty issue, to say the least. Going by the statistics from the American Center for Disease and Control, over 61% of Americans are overweight and are at risk of the attendant body disorders1. And unless they change their eating habits, the will, in the near future, be a nation of lazy, obese people with skyrocketing mortality rates.

Losing weight by the obese reduces the risk of a plethora of cancers including breast, colon, kidney and prostrate cancers among others. Being overweight is also attributed to a host of other ailments such as diabetes, coronary heart disease, insomnia, sleep apnea and other fatal diseases. Obese people also tend to suffer from low self esteem, poor confidence and depression due to the embarrassment and social stigma that comes with being fat.

4: Be safe from diabetes

Type II diabetes was once a disease of the older people in society but now affects even obese children. The excess fats are a strain on the normally available insulin, the hormone that stimulates the liver to convert excess sugars in the blood to an insoluble form called glycogen. Thus the body cannot do this unless one supplements the insulin artificially. This is not only expensive but also has adverse side effects that are yet to be defined by science. Losing weight not only removes this inconvenience but also reduces abdominal blood sugar and lowers risk of type II diabetes.

Related posts:

1. Healthy Weight – BMI & Waist Circumference
2. Why Does Health News Sound So Unhealthy?
3. The Best Water Treatment—Discover The Secret to a Healthier Life

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 at 06:20 and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.