The Dangers of Excess Body Fat from Pharmacy2U

The primary motivation for people to lose weight is to improve the way they look. However, of equal importance, are the array of other advantages of eating properly and taking regular exercise.

Managing your weight through reducing your excess body fat will play a very vital role in preserving good health and will help you fight disease. Actually, medical evidence shows that being overweight can pose a major threat to both your health and your life expectancy. (Obesity is classified as having more than 25 percent body fat for men and 32 percent for women.) It is widely thought that 1 in 4 people in Britain have excess body fat; while 18% of the population is classified as obese.

Having excess body fat is strongly linked to major physical conditions like cancer, heart disease and diabetes. For example, if you are overweight, your body requires more energy for you to breathe, simply because your heart has to work harder in order to pump the blood to the excess fat throughout the body and to your lungs. This increased work load will cause your heart to increase in size and is likely result in high blood pressure and life-threatening erratic heartbeats.

Overweight people also tend to exhibit high cholesterol levels, meaning that they are more prone to arteriosclerosis, which is a narrowing of the arteries by deposits of plaque and fat. This can be life-threatening when arteries become so narrow or blocked that vital organs like the brain, heart or kidneys don’t get enough blood. Also, the narrowing of the blood vessels forces the heart to pump harder, increasing blood pressure. High blood pressure in itself does pose several health risks, including kidney failure, heart attack and stroke. Amazingly, around 25 percent of all heart and blood vessel problems are associated with being overweight.

Medical studies and clinical trials have unearthed a strong relationship between the incidence of cancer and having excess body fat. By itself, body fat is thought to be a storage place for carcinogens in both men and women. In men, excess body fat has been linked to a higher rate of prostate and colon cancer. In women, the threat comes from breast and uterine cancer.

Additionally, there is a very delicate balance between blood sugar, body fat, and insulin. Surplus blood sugar is stored in vital organs (primarily the liver); when the organs become ‘full’ of sugar, the excess blood sugar becomes fat.

As fat cells themselves become full, they take in less blood sugar and in some obese people, the pancreas produces an excess of insulin - which the body is unable to use - to regulate blood sugar levels, and the entire body becomes overwhelmed. This inefficient regulation of blood sugar and insulin eventually results in diabetes, a widespread disease with long-term consequences, including kidney failure, heart disease, amputation, blindness and eventually death. People that have excess body fat are also at risk for a range of diseases including gastro-intestinal disease, gall-bladder disease, sexual dysfunction, osteoarthritiis, and stroke.