Obesity can happen to anyone – no class or sex is exempt. It can be prevented by proper calorie management, although once the condition occurs, it is difficult for obese people to get down to their ideal weight but it is not impossible.
Obesity
This can be defined as: a weight that is 20 percent over ‘ideal′
body weight, approximately 1 in every 6 men and 1 in every 4
women in the UK are obese.
Causes
Fatness is caused by eating disorders. By this means eating more than your body uses, in the course of everyday life and to maintain itself. What is often difficult to grasp is how little too much can be when overeating is spread out over many years and the surplus fat is not burned up.
To a certain extent, obesity can run in families, but often obesity occurs from acquiring bad eating habits from family.
It is rarely caused by a medical problem, e.g. under active thyroid gland or overactive adrenal glands.
Finally emotional factors play an important part in causing obesity. When people are depressed, they often turn to food for comfort and, over time, obesity will result.
Development of obesity
When an excess of food is eaten over the needs of the body for fuel or essential building blocks, the surplus is converted into fatty acids by the liver, taken into the bloodstream to the fatty or adipose tissues located around the body and then converted into storage fats.
When fat is laid down in excess, it appears where the tissue is most abundant usually in the buttocks and stomach initially, followed by the thighs and arms. Different people may develop fat deposits in slightly different places and at different rates, but most follow this general pattern.
Dangers
Being slightly above your ideal weight – by 5 per cent or so – is probably not a great risk, but if your weight is much over this, you will start being liable to a variety of other complications.
The extra weight the obese person carries and its distribution mainly in the central parts of the body puts extra strain on the JOINTS, particularly in the knees, hips and some of the joints in the back. This leads to the early development of osteoarthrosis (wear and tear of the joints), which will become a painful problem (OSTEOARTHRITIS) in early middle age. The extra weight will also cause the arches to drop-therefore flat FEET.
Fatty infiltration can cause movement of the DIAPHRAGM inhibited and this makes breathing inefficient and may lead to lung disorders and shortness of breath.
Obesity can cause mild DIABETES, which in turn may cause serious complications in the small blood vessels of the EYES and KIDNEYS.
Because of the tendency to have high blood fat, there is an increase risk of developing arteriosclerosis of the ARTERIES-a thickening and hardening of the arteries, which impairs blood circulation in the body. The result is likely to be an increased chance of THROMBOSIS of arteries supplying such vital organs as the brain and heart –resulting in STROKES and HEART ATTACKS. Obesity can lead to high BLOOD pressure, which also contributes to an increased chance of heart attacks, strokes and even kidney failure.
Treatments
The mainstays of treatment for obesity are sensible dieting, exercise and changes in behavior. Losing a great deal of weight is never easy, particularly as it requires a lot of willpower and the changing of eating habits acquires over a lifetime.
- Acupuncture therapy – Widely accepted as a safe, natural therapy for balancing the body, increasing willpower and metabolism, Acupuncture is also good for helping stress and depression symptoms.
This treatment course has been high recommended. - Slimming tea – Made from natural Chinese herbal leaves, which boasts reducing fat from the blood stream and also detoxifying the stomach to cutting routine calorie intake. Acuherbal stock a range of slimming teas of different strength and flavor.
- Herbal tablets, capsules, soap and creams also available
- Special diet program – Practical and easy to follow. Acuherbal slimming program includes sessions of acupuncture, which can help patients not only control their daily intakes, by adjusting the feeling centre of hypothalamus to block the transmission of energy consumption. This method is also free from the side effects resulting from simple hunger therapy, medication, and an overdose of exercise. It encourages a good balanced diet, a healthy lifestyle and by eating regularly at the right time.
Benefits
Potential benefits of acupuncture for weight control:
- Increased energy
- Decreased psychological symptoms such as irritability
- Suppression of appetite and cravings
- Balance of autonomic system (has a positive effect on psychological and physiological state)
- Support of detoxification process during the fat burning state (most toxic substances are deposited in the fat tissue)