Cancer | Overweight Children Statistics

Obesity Health Risks: Weight May Pose a Greater Health Risk than Smoking

January 23rd, 2010

A few years ago, I heard about a very disturbing survey. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the statistical details, but I’ll never forget the point. Someone asked a group of children in a US primary school if they would rather lose an arm or be fat. Some overwhelming percentage (I want to say close to 80 percent) said they would rather lose the arm. Think about that for a second. Our society places such a severe stigma on being overweight that 5-year-old children say they would rather give up an arm than be fat.
There’s so much pressure around us to be thin that it’s easy to forget that optimal body weight really is about our health, and not just our trouser size. But recently, a couple of new studies on health and weight confirmed that maintaining a healthy body weight is one of the most important things we can do for ourselves – and that letting it slide can be the most dangerous.
In one study, the American Medical Association reported that on average, obese people were found to have nearly twice the chronic health problems of people of normal weight. Keep in mind that obesity is defined as having a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 or more. (BMI is a mathematical formula that calculates the ratio of height to weight.) It was adopted by the National Institutes of Health in 1998 as the new gold standard in body weight.
BMI’s of 18.5 to 24.9 are considered “normal,” while values of 25 and over are considered overweight. A BMI of 30 or higher ranks as obese. According to the AMA study, about 56 percent of the American population falls into the overweight group. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 19.8 percent of Americans are obese. Before BMI was introduced, the old Metropolitan Life height-and-weight charts were the yardstick and body weights 20 percent or more above the recommended levels were considered obese. Here in the UK things aren’t much better, as we’re getting fatter as a nation and obesity rates are on the increase.
But it was the other study I found absolutely shocking. It was put out by the RAND Institute in Santa Monica and was published in the latest edition of the British journal “Public Health.” Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the study consisted of a telephone survey of 9,585 adults who were asked about their weight, height, smoking and drinking habits, income, quality of life, and if they had any of 17 chronic health problems, including asthma, cancer, diabetes, and heart problems.
The researchers found that the obese people had slightly more health problems than people in poverty, and far more than daily smokers or heavy drinkers, indicating that obesity may be a much greater health risk. Honestly, I was dumb-founded. Smoking, heavy drinking, and poverty – these are three very strong, very negative forces with staggering effects on health. It seems almost unfathomable that being overweight could be more dangerous than they are. Obviously we aren’t saying that smoking or heavy drinking are good for you, but thought the comparison was very powerful.
If you’ve tried to lose weight and feel like you’ve lost the struggle, I can sympathize. Weight is something I’ve struggled with most of my life. So please don’t think I’m giving this advice lightly or think it’s as easy as skipping a serving of potatoes. Being overweight is a complex physical, mental and emotional problem for most of us who struggle with it. But looking at these studies, I realize that the time has to be now. I don’t want to wake up in 10 years and still be saying, “I’ll start tomorrow.”
In recent weeks, I’ve gotten back into an exercise routine that I’d been lax about, given up deserts, and stopped drinking all fizzy drinks – diet and regular.
Trust me. I know how hard it is. There are many mornings when I would rather push the snooze button than get up and get on that treadmill (today was one of them). And, as I said, I’ve given up a lot of my favorite foods recently. But it seems silly to have quit smoking years ago only to learn that a weight problem may end up being even more dangerous for me.
Let’s stop putting it off until tomorrow and start today – right now. It’s the absolute best thing we can do for ourselves – and the people who love us. And as those pounds come off (and they will!), you’ll look great while doing something important for your health.

Tags: Asthma, Back Pain, Cancer, Diabetes, Heart Problems, Joint Problems, Obesity, Weight Loss
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Why are Americans so Obese? What Should they Do To Become a Slimmer nation?

January 20th, 2010

”Yummy, yummy, yummy, see my obese tummy!” should perhaps be America’s new national anthem.

How Overweight Is America?

How serious is obesity in America? According to Kathleen Donnelly for MSN Health & Fitness, statistics show that “…60 percent of adult Americans weigh too much, and 17 percent of American children and teens are overweight.”

And the problem continues to escalate. In the past thirty years, children in the USA are increasingly tipping the scales. The rise of obesity among children between the ages of 6 and 11 has gone from 4% to 13 % in three decades. Obesity in US children ages 12 to 19 has gone from 5% to 14%. And if a child is obese at the age of 6, it has a 50/50 chance of being obese for life. Obese thirteen year olds have a 75% likelihood of being obese for the rest of their lives. This problem is even more severe among blacks and Hispanics.

To remedy their plight, 103,000 morbidly obese Americans living in the United States had gastric bypass surgery in 2003. The complication rate was 7%.

What causes obesity?

Several causes for obesity have been suggested, including heredity, social-economic conditions, diet, and exercise. Since we can’t control who our parents are, let’s focus on social-economic conditions, diet, and exercise.

Obesity & Social-economic conditions

Numerous studies have concluded that there is a direct cause and effect relationship between a person’s level of education and their odds of being overweight. The greater their level of learning is, the slimmer their odds of obesity are.

Dysfunctional Diets, Inadequate Exercise, and Bulging Belt-lines

Of course, two obvious causes of obesity are dysfunctional diets and a lack of proper exercise. Americans are exercising less and less while simultaneously consuming too much junk food. The average US woman is now consuming 335 more calories per day than the average woman in 1971. Calorie intake among men has increased to an additional 168 calories per day. Is it any wonder that America is increasingly becoming an obese nation?

Health Risks Associated with Obesity

Discomfort about one’s appearance, however, is not the only downside to obesity. There are numerous health risks associated with being overweight. Obese individuals have a higher-than-normal rate of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, high lipids, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, strokes, respiratory disease, some types of cancers, heart disease, and other chronic and deadly conditions. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicts obesity will soon be America’s number one killer. In 2000, tobacco was linked to 435,000 deaths while obesity was close behind at 400,000 deaths.

What to Do About Obesity

There are primarily three things that most experts recommend to help maintain a healthy weight level: 1) Getting the proper amount of exercise, 2) eating a healthy, well-balanced diet, and 3) supplementing one’s diet with nutritional products.

The Value of Exercise

If you’re considering going on a diet to lose weight, remember that the important thing is not just to lose weight, but to keep it off. In order to lose weight and keep it off, there is no substitute for exercise. One study reported by The National Weight Control Registry shows that out of 3,000 individuals who lost a minimum of 30 pounds and kept it off for more than a year, only 9 percent lost weight without exercising.

How much exercise should an individual get?

The proper amount of exercise that an individual should get of course varies from individual to individual. To make certain you are getting the proper amount of exercise, consult your family physician.

Melissa Tennen, HealthAtoZ writer, says: “Get at least 30 minutes of activity on most days. To prevent weight gain, 60 minutes a day may be necessary.”

What is a Healthy Diet?

The short answer to the question, “What is a healthy diet?” is to eat a well-balanced diet that is as close as possible to the way nature intended. Fast foods and highly-processed foodless foods have been proven to have ill-effects on one’s health. Many are high in calories and low in nutritional value.

Yet not everyone has the time, the money, or the ability to eat “The Perfect Diet.” So what’s the solution?

The Importance of Supplementing Your Diet

No doubt, in a perfect world, we would not need vitamin pills, diet pills, and other nutritional supplements. We’d simply get everything our body needs from our food. But let’s get a reality check: This is not Eden. And getting everything your body needs from your diet alone is almost impossible. Plus, if you are overweight, you need extra help.

What to look for in a Weight-Loss Pill

If you’re looking for “The Perfect Weight Loss Pill,” there are a number of things to consider. Here are just a few:

Does the product’s formula utilize nutrients in the most absorbable and potent form available?

Most companies compromise on their nutrients. They use poorly absorbed forms or synthetically derived fractions of nutrients.

Does the product use ephedra stimulants or dangerous fat blockers?

For accelerated fat-loss support and increased performance, you need help with reducing hunger, utilizing fat, enhancing metabolism, and increasing true energy levels. Insist on a weight loss product that delivers all natural support for healthy weight loss, without using ephedra stimulants.

Also, avoid dangerous fat blockers. The perfect solution is to find a weight loss pill that works by helping support healthy digestion of stored fat and a healthy metabolism. Lipase is the enzyme responsible for breaking down fat, making it available for utilization as energy. Without lipase, fat is stored as excess body fat.

Does the product contain Citrin K™ and CLA?

Research shows Citrin K™ and CLA as two powerful ingredients in helping maintain healthy fat burning. Also important are Guggul lipids and chelated minerals. They help maintain a healthy thyroid and will reduce cravings. Weight loss pills containing these ingredients make for a healthier, safer and more effective body fat reduction formula.

Don’t forget the importance of fiber

Special types of fiber will expand in your stomach and will reduce your hunger without stimulation and drug-like effects. This, in turn, will help to nutritionally support healthy body fat levels.

Your body needs energy to burn fat

Finally, the most needed factor in losing body fat is keeping your energy levels up so you have the energy burn more fat.

Are there really any nutrients available today that help promote healthy and safe fat reduction? YES! Although there are many supplements today containing herbs like Guarana, MaHuang and Ephedra that can have potentially harmful side effects, there are still many that safely help the body reduce its fat stores.

Here are just a few of the most powerful nutrients which have been well-documented:

CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid)

A study published in The Journal of Nutrition (December 2000, V12) established that the natural dietary supplement conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) reduces body fat. Jan Wadstein, MD, PhD, associate professor at Lund University in Sweden states, “CLA may be a valuable weight management supplement to any diet regimen. Keeping lean body mass and speeding up fat loss are the keys to a successful weight program.”

Garcinia Cambogia

Another supplement essential for weight loss is natural organic acid extract from the rind of the Malabar tamarind called Garcinia Cambogia. This compound has been associated with gradual decrease in body fat, nutritionally supporting healthy cholesterol levels, and suppressing hunger cravings frequently. A study performed by Katts, et al, concluded the administration of Garcinia Cambogia reduced deposition of body fat and promoted increased weight loss in human subjects. Citrin K is a proprietary formula proven to suppress appetite. The best and most researched form of Garcinia Cambogia can be found in our proprietary blend called Citrin K. Citrin K also supplies potassium, which plays a major role in maintaining the body’s fluid balance. There are other forms of Garcinia Cambogia on the market, but they don’t have the potency guarantee that Citrin K does.

Other micronutrients needed to support body fat metabolism include vitamin A, vitamin B, vitamin C and Zinc and Chromium. Look for a weight-loss supplement that will supply you with the highest quality of whole food vitamins and amino acid chelated minerals. This will help to nutritionally support a healthy metabolism, further enhancing your results.

Theobromine

Theobromine is an extraordinary nutrient found in chocolate. It helps maintain healthy levels of stress, giving you a confident and powerful feeling of health. This is a vital component to look for in a weight control product because it nutritiously supports the body in appetite suppression and provides an energetic, euphoric effect. This is very important, as many people scrap weight loss programs because of irritability and their inability to curb cravings.

So if you want to lose weight and keep it off, get the proper amount of exercise, eat a healthy, well-balanced diet, and supplement your diet with a weigh loss pill that meets the aforementioned criteria. The final word on diet pills is this: “The Perfect Weight Loss Pill” should contain the most powerful and safest nutrients available to help you nutritionally support healthy fat burning metabolism without harmful stimulants.

Tags: Cancer, Causes For Obesity, Diet, Dieting, Exercise, Fat Blockers, Healthy Weight Loss, Heart Disease, Lose Weight, Nutrition, Obesity, The Perfect Weight Loss Pill, Weight Loss, Weight Loss Pills
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Obesity – A Growing Problem! – 12 Simplest Ways To Protect Your Health

December 21st, 2009

Do you know what the most important thing in life is? That’s HEALTH! This is the “ONE” thing that we all need to take Care and Control. The reason is very simple, without HEALTH everything else is useless…….

Let’s talk today about one of the growing problems we all are facing – OBESITY and OVERWEIGHT.

Did you know that by statistics obesity took over tobacco industry? Thousands of people die every year from obesity and obesity related diseases.

Obesity is an epidemic peculiar to this century. We must decide whether we address it today, or pass it on to future generations. Comprehensive changes to the way we live have led to this problem, and we are all aware that action in the field of health alone is not enough.

Overweight and obesity are defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to health. Overweight and obesity are major risk factors for a number of chronic diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Once considered a problem only in high income countries, overweight and obesity are now dramatically on the rise in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in urban settings.

approximately 1.6 billion adults (age 15+) were overweight;

at least 400 million adults were obese.

At least 20 million children under the age of 5 years are overweight globally.

What causes obesity and overweight?

The fundamental cause of obesity and overweight is an energy imbalance between calories consumed on one hand, and calories expended on the other hand. Global increases in overweight and obesity are attributable to a number of factors including:

a global shift in diet towards increased intake of energy-dense foods that are high in fat and sugars but low in vitamins, minerals and other micronutrients; and a trend towards decreased physical activity due to the increasingly sedentary nature of many forms of work, changing modes of transportation, and increasing urbanization.

What can be done for this problem?

Have you ever wondered why the older you get the harder it is to maintain your weight, let alone lose it?

There are people that work out every day for an hour a day and eat low-fat foods, and they still can’t get those ten pounds off. As they get older they notice that their cravings for fats and sweets increase. They get more illnesses. They have more physical problems. They are tired all the time.

Of course you want answers on What? Why? How? All those will be discussed in details in following 12 topics. These topics can help you to discover the simplest ways to protect yourself and take control of your health starting today.

You can find these topics in http://www.HealthObesity.info

Tags: Cancer, Diabetes, Health, Heart, Loss Weight, Obesity, Overweight
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Two Comparative Models Of Cancer Prevention: Which Is the Better Model of Truth?

December 5th, 2009

Texas governor Rick Perry will most likely face some stiff opposition for the use of his executive order last week. He bypassed the state legislature to make Texas the first state to require school aged girls to be vaccinated against a sexually transmitted virus known as HPV (human papillomavirus).
This virus is thought to cause cervical cancer in women years after being infected. HPV eventually infects over half of all sexually active people and also causes genital warts.
The vaccine being promoted is called ‘Gardasil’ made by Merk & Co., a new vaccine that claims to block four common strains of the HPV virus. Merk says that ‘Gardasil’ prevents 99 percent of infections by two HPV stains that cause about 70 percent of cervical cancer and two strains that cause most genital warts.
The grim statistics estimate that around 9,700 new cases of cervical cancer will be diagnosed this year in the United States resulting in about 3,700 deaths.
Starting in the fall of 2008 girls as young as 11 to 12 entering the sixth grade will be required to receive ‘Gardasil’ in Texas. This mandate is effective until Perry or a successor repeals it. The legislature has no authority to change it.
Legislative aids and parent advocacy groups against vaccinations are looking for ways around this executive order. Their main cause for concern is in the interfering of their rights as parents to chose medical decisions for their children. Current Texas law allows parents to opt out of inoculations by filing an affidavit objecting to vaccinations on religious or philosophical reasons.
The success Merk & Co. has had in Texas has them using heavy lobbying tactics by continuing these bankrolling efforts to get other states to pass laws like the one in Texas.
Three doses at a cost of $120.00 each for a total cost of $360.00 to inoculate for this viral infection has many doctors refusing to even stock it. They are saying problems with insurance companies reimbursing them is totally inadequate and they are fed up with rising vaccine prices.
What will be the long term track record of ‘Gardasil’? No one knows for sure and will not for some time to come. Apparent testing is now being done on young school girls in Texas required to get vaccinations. How long of a time span should drug manufacturers be required to have to prove benefits and safety results of new disease prevention drugs? How have track records for other disease prevention vaccinations worked out in the pros and cons? Intelligent questions such as these makes it obvious not enough time has passed to be requiring a new mandatory vaccination. Fast tracking any new drug has not been proven to be safe.
In another model comparison to cancer prevention there is more positive medical evidence emerging every day that shows without a doubt that implementing diet changes works rather well if not better than drug treatments. Objective study after study has shown conclusively that a diet high in whole food nutrition is the winning key that unlocks the door of disease.
Thousands of objective alternative studies done around the world have been undertaken for many years in studying the prevention of many diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and stroke with dietary changes. Reputable whole food complete supplements and using other diet changes have produced impressive results.
Despite the impressive amount of evidence emerging on the scene people continue to eat more poorly than ever. As parents we think we do not have the time or the resources to look after our, or our children’s nutritional needs. There are so many distractions and demands on our time making nutrition a distant competitor to other things we consider more important.
When thinking this way consider these statistics:
Cancer kills more children than any other disease.
In the last 20 years overweight children has increased 50%, and extremely overweight children has nearly doubled.
40 million children have abnormally high cholesterol levels.
By age 12, about 70% of our children have developed the beginning stages of hardening of the arteries.
It seems rather obvious that as a nation and culture we are in complete denial of our poor eating habits. We are simply not paying enough attention to good sound nutritional practices. Many are paying the price as well as our children who, if left to continue eating poorly, will live shorter lives than any generation before them.
Will pharmaceutical companies be able to save us from our poor eating habits? I rather doubt it as this model is failing at an expensive and alarming rate. Evidence is coming to the forefront on the ability drugs have to harm more people than they save. If our legislatures allow the continuation of this model medical bankruptcy of this great country could be the end result.
When choosing to explore nature’s wisdom you may be pleasantly surprised to find out which of these two models validates truth. By knowing more you will be enabled to do more, and it is in this doing that produces the believing!

Tags: Cancer, Diet, Disease, Drug, Prevention, Vaccinations
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