It's Expensive to Be Overweight

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the costs of treating obesity were about $147 billion in 2008, while in 1998 they were about $74 billion. What does this mean?

It means obese people tend to spend 42% more than fit people on medical costs; at least these were the facts in 2006. Thomas Frieden is the CDC’s new director and he says an average American is almost 23 pounds overweight and eats almost 250 calories more daily, while a couple a decades ago he used to eat less.

Obesity is not something you can joke about – it causes disabilities and exacerbating health disparities. In U.S. diabetes, an obesity-related disease, is a major problem and it gets worse.

Diabetes is the inability of your body to effectively use insulin. Low-carbohydrate diets improve insulin sensitivity for people with type 2 diabetes and glycemic control. In long term a low-fat diet also helps. But diets combined with physical exercise bring results almost twice as good as medication for diabetics. There was also shown that diabetics who take vitamin E may reduce the risk of heart attack.

Heart diseases like heart attack, coronary heart disease, congenital heart disease, and congestive heart failure include conditions affecting the heart. If you follow a "heart healthy" diet, you can experience less cognitive decline as you age. The DASH Diet, also known as Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, offers a solution not only to lose weight, but also to lower the blood pressure by reducing salt intake down to 1500 mg. According to other researchers the Mediterranean diet (you can find an article about this diet too on Project Weight Loss) also helps the cognitive function.

People who don`t pay enough attention to their lipid levels intake may have a bigger cardiovascular age compared to people who manage the risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. But don’t worry - it seems U.S. researchers have made another step forward in improving heart functions. The solution is a mixture of different types of grapes: green, red and black. They also suggest that eating a piece of dark chocolate daily reduces risk of heart disease and stroke. Don’t forget to exercise because it may help maintain your heart`s health whether it`s a daily routine or a structured fitness program.

Hypertension, high blood pressure, occurs when your heart must work harder to pump the blood through blood vessels. An Italian researcher discovered that Vitamin C might help lower the hypertension and calm the overactive central nervous system.

Other study shows obese people and smokers are more likely to suffer from anxiety or depression. There’s a solution for these problems as well – play tennis. Tennis players are higher in optimism, self-esteem, and vigor having a low level of anger, confusion, depression, tension, and anxiety. Singing also has lots of benefits: e.g. helps those who suffer from sleep apnea; helps reduce depression or anxiety; improves articulation and presence when speaking; overcomes shyness and nervous reactions to crowds. A team of researchers found that music helps the immune system to boost compounds that defend the body against infections. Piped music is sometimes used before surgeries because it eases anxiety.

There are many solutions for losing weight. All you have to do to is look for them and don’t give up in the middle of your weight loss program.