Obesity is a disease
The proportion of overweight and obese people is steadily rising. Obesity, as most often a result of lifestyle and diet, is the main factor of a shorter lifespan.
Early and distant complications resulting from obesity:
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- Endocrine and reproductive systems: insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome, type II diabetes, precocious puberty, growth hormone deficiency, menstrual disorders and polycystic ovarian syndrome in girls, hypogonadism in boys, gynecomastia, reduced fertility.
- Obesity in pregnancy can lead to embryo stasis, miscarriage, fetal malformations (spinal hernia, craniosynostosis, heart defects), fetal hypotrophy or macrosomia, and intrauterine fetal death.
- Cardiovascular system: dyslipidemia (elevated cholesterol), hypertension, left ventricular hypertrophy, early atherosclerotic lesions of the vessels, heart and brain infarction, stroke, pulmonary embolism, ischemic heart disease, heart failure, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary valve regurgitation, coagulopathy.
- Respiratory system: sleep apnoea syndrome, bronchial asthma, exercise intolerance in adults (exercise intolerance in children), increased anaesthetic risk.
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- Gastrointestinal tract: steatohepatitis, cholelithiasis, gastroesophageal reflux disease, disturbance of quantitative and qualitative microbiological composition of the gastrointestinal tract, intestinal diverticular disease, leaky gut syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn’s disease, microscopic colitis.
- Increased cancer risk: in women: cancers of the body and cervix, ovary, gallbladder], breast cancer; in men: colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, pseudotumour of the brain (intracranial hypertension).
- Immune system: increased inflammatory index.
- Excretory system: glomerulosclerosis.
- Locomotor system: joint strain, especially in the knee and hip joints, juvenile femoral epiphysis, Blount’s disease, knock-knees, flat feet, varicose veins in the lower limbs, gout, aseptic necrosis of the hip joint, postural problems, back pain, forearm fracture, dislocation of the femoral head.
- Skin: keratoses, stretch marks, hirsutism, lymphoedema, burns.
- Neurological: pseudotumor cerebri, meralgia with paresthesias, migraines, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease
- Reduced quality of life: low self-esteem, periods of depression, sometimes a sense of social isolation, poorer academic performance, anxiety, increased number of hospitalisations
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