Obesity and Overweight Can Affect Health Problems

Obesity and Overweight Can Affect Health Problems

Obesity is a medical condition that occurs when a person carries excess weight that might affect their health!

What are obesity and overweight?

Obesity and overweight are defined as abnormal so, excessive fat accumulation that may impair health.

Furthermore, when people eat more calories than usual over and over again, so their bodies will store the extra calories. For instance, fat may build up in their bodies.

Eventually, fat can harm the health of a person. In addition, The term “overweight” or “obese” actually has a higher chance of developing weight-related health problems. It can lead to other diseases like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and sleep apnea. However, weight can come from muscle, bone, fat, or body water.

Above all, these diseases give a bad impact to our body. For instance, people with severe obesity are more likely to have other diseases.

Facts about overweight and obesity

The global WHO estimates, in 2016, therefore, more than 1.9 billion adults above 18 years and older were overweight in and more than 650 million adults are obese.

Eventually a large number of the world’s population lives in countries where overweight so, their death number of obesity is however more than underweight people.

Body Mass Index (BMI)

Body mass index (BMI) is a simple index of weight-for-height. Therefore, It is used to define whether an individual is considered underweight, healthy, overweight and obesity. In addition, often all doctors use BMI to check patient weight at all routine check-ups.

BMI	Weight status
Below 18.5	Underweight
18.5–24.9	Healthy
25.0–29.9	Overweight
30.0 and above	Obese

Health problems of being overweight and obesity

Obesity is when your body weight is abnormal. Therefore, it can lead to other diseases like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, sleep apnea, and many more. In other words, these diseases may affect a poor quality of life, disability, or life threatening.

1. Hypertension

Obesity is the one that cause of high blood pressure. But, also known as hypertension. For instance, about three out of four patients with high blood pressure are obesity. Similarly, high blood pressure increases the risk of other conditions such as heart disease like congestive heart failure (CHF) in addition, so it can also cause stroke, and kidney disease.

2. Respiratory Disorders

Obesity and overweight are at higher risk for lung infections, asthma, and other respiratory disorders. In addition, people with obesity, around 50% to 60% therefore, have obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Because, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a very serious breathing disorder and it block air passageways during sleep. Above all, this blockage causes you to stop breathing for a while.

Mostly, it may attack during your sleep at the night. However, it reduced the amount of oxygen in blood. Because, obstructive sleep apnea can cause sudden cardiac death and stroke because apnea will disrupt the normal sleep cycle, and may cause restless sleep. In addition, fatigue and drowsiness occured.

3. Heart Disease

Heart attack is a higher risk with people that have severe obesity. For instance, it increases the risk of heart failure. However, obesity in addition can associated with arrhythmias that is irregular heartbeats.

4. Diabetes

Obesity is a major cause of Type 2 diabetes. Similarly, when blood sugar is too high in your body and difficult to control, because of high blood sugar. So, type 2 diabetes can risk to death.

There can lead to:

Amputations (loss of limbs)
Heart disease
Stroke
Blindness
Kidney disease
High blood pressure
Nerve damage and numbness
Hard-to-heal infections
Impotence

5. Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD)

Obesity has been associated with higher risk of GERD. In addition, Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD), and heartburn, because of stomach acid or intestinal secretions lead to oesophagus damage. In other words, heartburn, indigestion, vomiting, coughing especially at night, hoarseness, and belching is the common symptoms.

6. Bone and Joint Damage

Above all, bone and joint damage may affected if you are obesity. However, it can increase the risk of personal injury and accidents. In addition, joint diseases (arthritis), disc herniation, spinal disorders, back pain, pseudotumor cerebri, a condition that increase the pressure in the brain and associated with confusion similarly disorientation, headache, and visual problems might occur.

7.Cancer

As body mass index (BMI) increases, so the risk of cancer and death from cancer might be increased.

These cancers include:

Endometrial cancer 
Cervical cancer 
Ovarian cancer 
Postmenopausal breast cancer 
Colorectal cancer 
Esophageal cancer 
Pancreatic cancer 
Gallbladder cancer 
Liver cancer 
Kidney cancer 
Thyroid cancer 
Prostate cancer
Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
Multiple myeloma
Leukemia

Above all, for people with severe obesity, the percentage of death increases for all types of cancer. So, the death rate is men is 52% and for women is 62% higher.

Other Conditions

Kidney Disease: High blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes and congestive heart failure are major causes of kidney disease and kidney failure. In addition, these conditions are even worse with people that have obesity.

Liver Disease: Obesity is the major cause for fatty liver. For instance, most people with severe obesity have fatty liver disease so, It can cause scarring at the liver, resulting in liver damage. In addition, can lead to cirrhosis.

Other conditions that could become life-threatening: Therefore, pregnancy women that diagnosed with obesity will increases the chance of having a miscarriage, gallbladder disease, pancreatitis, and others.

What causes it?

The following picture shows causes of obesity.

How can overweight and obesity be reduced?

However, overweight and obesity as well as unrelated diseases associated with it, are largely preventable.

People can reduced by:

Limit the energy intake of total fats and sugars.
Increase diet fruit and vegetables, legumes, whole grains and nuts.
Do regular physical activity everyday, In other words, at least 1 hour a day for children and 2 hours a week for adults.
Limit screen time.
Get enough good quality sleep. Because, it can increase your productivity to burn fats.

Benefits of being healthy weight

In addition, to reducing the risk of health conditions and maintain a healthy weight provides other benefits:

Reduced joint and muscle pains.
Increased energy and can do daily activities.
Improved regulation of body fluids and similarly blood pressure.
Reduced heart burden and circulatory system.
Improved sleep patterns.

References:

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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Raihan Ridzuan

Raihan Ridzuan, Bachelor of Science (Hons) Pharmacology, is Customer Relationship Executive of Mayflax, one of the nation’s leading healthcare and marketing company.

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February 2, 2021January 29, 2022

COVID-19: Can vitamin C help boost your immune system?

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It happened in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, and spread globally, resulting in an ongoing pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed as a global pandemic by the World Health Organization.

Thus, it continued to spread and a vaccine is urgent for immunization and a cure. Meanwhile, waiting for the production of vaccine done, taking precautions action is considered the best approach.

This disease is asymptomatic and the severity of covid-19 may lead to severe respiratory tract infections and become deadly.

Furthermore, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), these factors related to immunity such as age and underlying conditions determine the risk of infection.

Therefore, individuals who are at higher risk of having covid-19 complications is a person that having a pre-existing illness like type 2 diabetes, liver disease, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory issues.

It also increases with age as the general immunity reduces when you getting older.

Besides, immune factors play a major role to protect our bodies, with this variety factor which indicates the influence the severity of the disease.

Does Vitamin C help boost your immunity and keep you from COVID-19-free?

Not exactly! It strengthens your immune system, but there is no concrete evidence that it can treat or prevent the disease caused by a SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, our body still needs vitamins to boost the immune system.

Similarly, no evidence said that vitamin C supplements can help to prevent COVID-19, “Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennessee, told New York Times Parenting”.

“If there’s going to be an advantage, it’s going to be very modest,” Schaffner said.

Vitamin C

Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, is a water-soluble vitamin that has immune-boosting micronutrients and it is relatively easy to get such as can be found in a variety of fruits and vegetables.

Hence, low vitamin C levels are also resulting in many health problems such as poor immunity, bleeding gums, and tooth loss.

Since your body cannot produce vitamin C, it’s important to include essential nutrients in your daily diet.

Humans cannot produce vitamin C on their own, because they don’t have the specific enzyme needed. Hence, we need to get it from an exogenous source which is food that includes essential nutrients in daily diet.

In addition, vitamin C plays a role in maintaining the immune system comprehensively through its antioxidant ability to protects against damage induced by oxidative stress, collagen synthesis, or directly strengthens immune cells in the fight against infection.

It also helps prevent the common cold.

However, you can purchase the vitamin C supplement at the pharmaceutical wholesaler if you want in a bulk quantity such as mayflax.

How much your body need Vitamin C per day?

The recommended daily dosage of vitamin C follow by age and gender. As per the National Institutes of Health, the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) for vitamin C are as follows:

Age	Male	Female	Pregnancy	Lactation
0–6 months	40 mg	40 mg
7–12 months	50 mg	50 mg
1–3 years	15 mg	15 mg
4–8 years	25 mg	25 mg
9–13 years	45 mg	45 mg
14–18 years	75 mg	65 mg	80 mg	115 mg
19+ years	90 mg	75 mg	85 mg	120 mg

Note: Individuals who smoke need more doses than non-smokers needed, which is add 35 mg per day.

Here, have five clinical stages of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) :

Figure 1: Covid-19 treatment stratification in a Malaysian public hospital setting.

Can we consume vitamin C too much ?

Vitamin C is water-soluble, meaning it absorbs and passes through your body faster. Besides that, vitamin C is eliminated when you urinate.

Taking more than 2000 milligrams per day of vitamin C can lead to unpleasant side effects such as:-

Stomach pain
Nausea
Diarrhoea
Vomiting
Heartburn
Headache
Insomnia

Other food sources that are high in Vitamin C

Foods rich in vitamin C include :-

Oranges and orange juice
Grapefruits
Strawberries
Kiwis
Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Spinach
Kale
Red and green peppers
Potatoes

Immune booster to maintain body health

There are 6 immune boosters to help you to maintain a healthy body other than vitamin C :-

Vitamin A (Beta Carotene): This vitamin helps the health of your intestines and respiratory system. Foods rich in vitamin A include carrots, sweet potato, spinach, broccoli, and red bell peppers, egg yolk, butter, milk, cheese, etc.

Vitamin E: Vitamin E can be a cancer prevention agent preventing cells from oxidative harm from free radicals. These nutrients also can neutralization of free radicals by working as an antioxidant such as vegetable oils, nuts, seeds, and avocado.

Zinc: There are many zinc-dependent enzymes in our body and their deficiency is associated with immune dysfunction. Zinc-rich foods such as beans, seeds, nuts, meat, poultry, some shellfish, legumes, whole grains, and fortified cereals.

Selenium: Selenium is another body’s antioxidant system, that ensures the body against oxidative pressure. It a mineral that helps certain immune cells function at their best. For examples, seafood, meat, whole grains, dairy, fruits and vegetables.

Probiotics: The function of probiotics to helps the gut to become a healthy gut because it is made up of good bacteria that help keep your body healthy and working well. Moreover, not only that, probiotics can contribute to immune function.

Protein: Specific amino acids can be found in protein. There are essential for T-cell function, which are cells that protect the body from pathogens. For instance, meats, poultry, seafood, eggs, beans, nuts, and all seeds which contain a lot of protein.

These nutrients are proven to help your body’s immune system function most efficiently and effectively, but if you eat too much, it can be harmful. Thus, eat these nutrients in moderation and do not overeat.

Can taking vitamin C help to prevent COVID-19?

Frankly, without a vaccine, it is important to find ways to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Again, there are many things about this virus that we still do not know because viruses keep changes through mutation, and new variants of a virus are expected to occur over time. Sometimes new variants emerge and disappear.

Right now, vitamin C is one of the few vitamins that your body needs to do its best. Getting enough vitamins and nutrients in your diet can help in strengthening your immune system, which also can possibly help you prevent this virus.

There is nothing wrong with taking vitamin C as part of your COVID-19 prevention plan, but no evidence it is true! There is a lot of ongoing research with positive results on the use of vitamin C as a treatment.

However, there is not enough information and evidence to know for sure whether it is effective against COVID-19.

Ways to prevent COVID-19

Furthermore, have other ways can help to prevent the covid-19 spread. Now, you can follow easy tips to add to your “new normal” as a daily routine :-

Wash your hands for 20 seconds.
Apply hand sanitizer
Wear a mask
Social Distance
Stay at home
Disinfect or sanitize all the things
Try not to touch your face or mouth.

References:

Vitamin C, ascorbic acid, boost, immune system, immunity, coronavirus, virus, mutation, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, pathogens, global pendemic, pandemic, immunization, vaccine, anti-vial, respiratory tract, infections, asymptomatic, infection, health, healthy, micronutrients, nutrients, fruits, vegetables, enzyme, antioxidant, oxidative stress, pregnancy, lactation, doses, clinical stages, side effects, food rich, immune boosters, tips, new normal, routine.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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Raihan Ridzuan

Raihan Ridzuan , Bachelor of Science (Hons) Pharmacology, is Customer Relationship Executive of Mayflax , one of the nation’s leading healthcare and marketing company.

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August 13, 2020July 19, 2021

Women with recurrent pregnancy loss could reduce their stress with emotion-focused strategies

Source from MIMS.com

According to the data presented at ESHRE 2020, perceived stress in women who had recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) could be reduced by meditation and mindfulness interventions.

Karen Kirchheiner from Hdidovre Hospital in Denmark, stated that studies have shown perceived stress and moderate-to-severe depression are more prevalent in women with RPL than other women trying to conceive.

“A 7-week meditation and mindfulness programme significantly reduced perceived stress [vs] a standard supportive care programme for women with RPL,” she said.

The researchers in the study randomized 76 women, 1:1 to receive supportive care alone or with a 7-week meditation and mindfulness programme facilitated by an authorized instructor. Daily guided audio of meditation for 10-20 minutes were also instructed for the women in the intervention arm while women in the control arm were instructed against meditation; 63 women completed the study.

Mean perceived stress significantly dropped from baseline in both the intervention and the control arms at 7 weeks with intervention outweighed the control protocol in terms of perceived stress reduction for between-group comparison.

The between-group difference was not significant as the perceived stress levels remained low in both intervention and control arms at 12 months vs baseline.

Women in the intervention arm had a significant reduction in personal stress from baseline, which were based on COMPI-FPSS scores at week 7. No significant differences were seen in the other two domains despite the reduced scores.

Consistent numerical reductions were seen across all COMPI-FPSS domains with the intervention protocol at 12 months, 9.2 to 8.7 points, and 7.9 to 7.6 points with only the social domain score reduction was statistically significant.

At week 7, depression was reported at baseline, dropping to none for two women in the intervention and at 12 months, only one had depression. However, these reductions did not equate to statistical significance.

Kirchheiner stated that there are no any significant decrease in depression in all three timelines and underlined that the study was not powered to detect differences in Major Depression Index (MDI).

“[Nevertheless, our studies suggest that] guided self-administered meditations could be a useful tool in the care for women experiencing RPL …. We now have a documented tool to reduce perceived stress. The question now is how to implement this in our clinical practice,” she concluded.

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