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Obesity FAQ
| Thursday, Jan 10 2008 9:43 AM
Last Updated: Friday, Jan 18 2008 5:49 PM
OBESITY FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What can obesity do to a person?
Who is most prone to be obese and how prevalent is it?
What is coronary heart disease?
What causes coronary heart disease?
What can coronary heart disease do to you?
How do you determine BMI for adults?
How do you determine BMI for children and teens?
Is there a calculator that can determine BMI for me?
An adult with a body mass index of 30 or higher is considered obese. Children are seldom classified as obese. Childhood obesity refers to children in the 95th percentile and above for their size among all other people their age.
Obesity results from eating too many calories and not getting enough physical activity over a long period of time. This balance is affected by genes, metabolism, behavior, environment, culture and socioeconomic status.
What can obesity do to a person?
Obesity over a lifetime can cause conditions affecting almost every part of the body:
Stroke
Mental stress and depression
Excess body and facial hair
Cancer (breast, gallbladder, uterine, cervical, ovarian, rectal and prostate)
Chronic heartburn
Heart disease
High blood pressure and cholesterol
Asthma, breathing problems
Sleep apnea
Type 2 diabetes
Fatty liver disease
Menstrual abnormalities
Infertility
Decline in libido
Complications with pregnancy
Incontinence
Degeneration of cartilage and bone in joints
Skin diseases
Who is most prone to be obese and how prevalent is it?
Since the mid-1970s up to 2004, the prevalence of overweight and obese children in the United States has roughly tripled among ages 6 to 19 and has more than doubled among children ages 2 to 5.
In adults 20 to 74, obesity has increased from 15 percent to 32.9 percent in that time period.
In California, overweight and obesity has grown for all age groups. From 2001 to 2005, overweight and obesity grew from 12.2 to 14.2 percent in ages 12 to 17 and 55 to 56.2 percent in ages 18-64. In people 65 and over, this grew from 54.3 to 55.7 percent.
In Kern County, 58.7 percent of all residents were overweight to obese in 2005.
Kern Latinos had the highest rate of overweight and obesity at 65.5 percent, followed by whites with 57.6 percent and blacks at 44.3 percent.
Almost 70 percent of Kern County men are overweight to obese compared to 48.3 percent of Kern County women.
Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, UCLA Center for Health Policy Research
Adjustable gastric banding
A rubber band is placed around the stomach, creating a small pouch and a narrow passage into the rest of the stomach. The band is inflated and can be adjusted.
Advantages: easier to perform, reversible. Disadvantages: less likely to maintain weight loss than with other surgeries
Roux-en-Y gastric bypass
A small stomach pouch is created to restrict food intake. A Y-shape section of the small intestine is attached to the pouch to allow food to bypass the lower stomach.
Advantages: Patients often keep weight off longer than with banding. Disadvantages: more difficult to perform, may result in nutritional deficiencies.
People who have a body mass index of 40 or more and have obesity-related health problems.
It runs $20,000 to $35,000 but may be covered by insurance.
Less than 1 percent of people die in the hospital after the surgery.
From 1995 to 2004, bariatric surgeries increased from 8,000 to 123,000 nationwide. But in 2005, the number of inpatient surgeries decreased to 116,000.
The number of surgeries in adolescents nationwide rose from 222 in 2000 to 771 in 2003.
More than 700 patients have gone through San Joaquin Community Hospitals Bariatric Solutions program in its eight-year history.
There are a few other doctors offices and smaller centers in Kern County that do these surgery, including Delano Regional Medical Center, but Bariatric Solutions is the largest.
Sources: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases; Bariatric Surgery in Adolescents, published in the March 2007 Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine; Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Bariatric Solutions
What is coronary heart disease?
Coronary heart disease is a narrowing of the small blood vessels that supply blood and oxygen to the heart.
What causes coronary heart disease?
Coronary heart disease is usually caused by a condition called atherosclerosis, which occurs when fatty material and a substance called plaque builds up on the walls of the arteries. Diabetes, high blood pressure, menopause, not getting enough physical activity, obesity and smoking increase risk.
What can coronary heart disease do to you?
As the coronary arteries narrow, blood flow to the heart can slow down or stop, causing chest pain, shortness of breath, heart attack and other symptoms.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both women and men in the United States.
Worldwide, coronary heart disease kills more than 7 million people each year.
In 1999, there were 58,476 deaths due to heart disease in California. This was 26 percent of the total number of deaths from all causes.
Roughly eight out of 1,000 Kern County residents were hospitalized for heart disease 1997-1999.
Sources: National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Since 1998, the National Institutes of Health have used body mass index to define overweight and obesity. BMI is a measure of body weight relative to height. It has some limitations, including the fact it can overestimate body fat in people who are very muscular and underestimate body fat in people who have lost muscle mass, like the elderly. In general, though, BMI closely correlates with total body fat for most individuals.
How do you determine BMI for adults?
To determine BMI:
Divide your total weight in pounds by your height in inches squared and then multiply the result by 703. Or: BMI = [(weight in pounds)/(height in inches)2] X 703
Below 18.5: underweight
18.5 to 24.9: healthy weight
25 to 29.9: overweight
30 to 39.9: obese
40 or higher: morbidly obese
How do you determine BMI for children and teens?
To determine BMI:
Divide your total weight in pounds by your height in inches squared and then multiply the result by 703. Or: BMI = [(weight in pounds)/(height in inches)2] X 703
For ages 2 to 20, gender and age are taken into account. BMI is plotted on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention growth charts and is interpreted as a percentile.
Below the 5th percentile: underweight
5th to less than 85th percentile: healthy weight
85th to less than 95th percentile: at risk of overweight
Above the 95th percentile: overweight
The CDC does not officially use the term obese to describe the BMI of children and teens, but there is some push to change that. When discussing childhood obesity, most people are usually referring to children and teens above the 95th percentile.
Is there a calculator that can determine BMI for me?
Yes there is. Go to www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/bmi.
Sources: The Surgeon Generals Call to Action to Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity 2001, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention