The Tribune

By Dr Monique Thompson

NOW that we have scratched the surface on how serious obesity is here in the Bahamas, I want to open up the public’s eye to the seriousness of how obesity affects one’s health by attempting to narrow the global scope of the obesity problem and make it more personal.

Last week I mentioned that a World Health Organisation (WHO) 2008 poll revealed that 26.4 per cent of adult males and 42.4 per cent of adult females were obese – this averages out to a total population obesity prevalence in adults of 34.4 per cent. A 2014 report by the United States Central Intelligence Agency found that this average has increased by 2.2 per cent, making our national average for obesity in the adult population 36.6 per cent.

Of the 193 countries listed, we ranked eighth in the world, essentially putting us in the top 10 fattest nations.

I understand that our obesity problem is very intimately intertwined with our culture, but with this sort of prevalence rate you can’t help but wonder, is our cultural food worth dying for? Because it is taking us out left, right and centre!

If you have not perceived it as yet – even from the previous article – I am more than a bit perturbed by all this. I am going to digress a bit but promise to get us right back on topic about how obesity personally affects your health. Here comes the digression: We are social beings and do not exist in a bubble. There are people who love us, need us, depend on us and care about us. Obesity leads to chronic health problems and eventually kills its victim. Like I said last week, first it is often a slow and expensive process, and second, many of these diseases that obesity contribute to, are preventable.

When the effects of obesity really begin to take a toll on a person it’s not just that individual who is affected by it. Those same individuals who love and care for someone with a chronic disease which was initiated and perpetuated by obesity are now the same ones that have to stand by and watch their loved one’s quality of life decrease, perhaps find the funds to get the necessary treatments, rearrange their lives to ensure some measure of comfort and care is achieved, and if the individual was the bread winner, that aspect of family life has to be addressed, and so on and so forth.

I say that to say that it is a preventable problem that now in turn affects others, and not just family and friends. In fact, the impact that obesity has on a society, especially ours, is more than significant and is ultimately very far reaching. Having said that, we can now get back on track as we look at the role obesity plays in non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

Obesity and type II diabetes

Researchers believe that obesity accounts for 80-85 per cent of the risk of developing type II diabetes. Insulin is the hormone our pancreas produces to get glucose (sugar) out of our blood and into our cells. When a person is overweight or obese, the extra weight causes the body to not respond to insulin as it should. This is called insulin resistance, and insulin resistance triggers the onset of type II diabetes. It is a medical condition that brings along with it kidney problems and failure (nephropathy), heart disease, and the need for amputations.

Obesity and cancer

A 2007 study conducted by the National Cancer Institute Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) estimated that obesity was responsible for four to seven per cent of new cases of cancer. This percentage is on the higher end for women, which means that obesity is a bigger problem for women in regards to cancer development. Obesity leads to increased risks of developing a variety of cancers including breast, endometrial (lining of the uterus), oesophageal, pancreatic, colon, rectal and thyroid cancers. Going a step further, it was also discovered that should a person who is obese develop cancer, their chances of dying from that particular cancer increases. So far, researchers and scientists have identified several mechanisms that can account for the increased risks of obesity leading to cancer. A few of the mechanisms are explained below.

Fat tissue (adipose) produces hormones like oestrogen, that make the development of cancer favourable in certain tissues (breast and endometrium for example). Additional fat causes generalised inflammation in the body – a factor that contributes to cancer growth and development. Persons who are obese tend to have more insulin in their blood, which can promote the growth of cancerous tumours.

Obesity and cardiovascular disease (CVD)

Cardiovascular disease is a blanket term for diseases of the heart and blood vessels. These include hypertension which leads to heart attacks and strokes, heart failure, arrhythmia etc. Obesity is a metabolic problem and leads to heart disease because of hypertension, high cholesterol, increased inflammation and dysregulated metabolism of glucose. Like so many other researchers, the Department of Population Health at the New York University School of Medicine conducted a study on the correlation between obesity and death from CVD. Do you want to guess what they found? Obesity and increased death from CVD go hand-in-hand.

I can go on and on and on about the connections between obesity and serious medical conditions. The aim this week was to illustrate that these risks associated with obesity are real and not just fluff the medical community puts out there to boost pharmaceutical sales or promote weight loss programmes, explain why obesity is a serious matter, and to demonstrate how it does harm to the body in significant ways. There’s a lot more on this topic so stay tuned!

• Dr Monique Thompson is the founder of Cornerstone Healing Institute, an integrative family medicine clinic, and can be contacted at 356-0083 with any questions/comments. Visit www.chibahamas.com for more information.