Obesity is One of The Most Serious Non Communicable Diseases

          Obesity is one of the most serious non communicable diseases that have not gained the attention it deserves. This is a life style condition that has of late been debated to whether be called a disease or not. Ostensibly, the UK and US contributes immensely to the spread and occurrence of this condition, nearly half of the Americans are overweight, and the prevalence is high in the young people. Children obesity contributes about 20% of all cases (Costa et al., 2006; Fine et al., 1999). It is from this realization that citizens from the two countries have in the past been concerned with their government putting up measures and policies to address the condition.

          Obesity results from excessive accumulation of fatty foods in the body. The condition develops progressively. Continuous intake of fat rich food and more calories than the the body can oxidize leads to their accumulation in the adipose tissues (Bay 2004; Smith et al., 2001).  This manifests itself in weight gain; the individual’s basal metabolic index would be greater than 30. However, other factors have been incriminated to cause this disease; these are genetic inheritance where a gene is past down the family line. However, it has not been proved that if your parents are obese then one would automatically inherit the disease, other factors would therefore play a key role for its manifestation, some studies shows that emotions and mood swings influences ones eating habits- which would like lead to the condition, life style conditions plays a major role in its prevalence, age and pregnancy in women are the other etiology (Bay 2004; Heshka & Allison 2001).  These factors contribute in one way of the other to its development. Obesity have had detrimental effects on the economy of the people of United States in particular, it is estimates have it that 45 billion dollars is spend annually to treat its associated conditions. Another 20 billion dollar is also lost due to absence from work (Fine et al., 1999).

          Alleviation of this problem will mostly depend on the effort we take as health professionals in addressing the issue. I hereby, present a pilot project that seeks to treat and prevent any ‘new infections’. The project has two approaches that should work together hand in hand, none of which is independent. For a healthy community good diet and physically fitness would form a good recipe.

          First, we ought to be conscious of our nutrition in terms of what kind of food stuffs we consume, for those who are already obese, your diet should be mainly composed of vitamins and minerals with very little protein and carbohydrates, you should avoid fatty foods at all. Those not affected should ensure their diet has very little lipids and fats, although consuming lots of calories would still bring the effect, let’s ensure we take calories as per the status of our work requirement to avoid excessive storage of fats in our body.

          Secondly, we all need to be fit and make sure the extra calories stored in our bodies are oxidized; to achieve this physical fitness would play a major role. It is from these two aspects that I present a nutritionist and a physical trainer in this community to help in monitoring this condition at home setting like what we have in Australia (Bennette, Saga & Dees 2006; Costa et al., 2006).

          This approach will cut costs of travelling to health facilities to seek advice on nutrition and taking the BMI measurements. Again the trainer would ensure special attention is given to those in urgent need to reduce weight.

          Though the method seeks to be one of the best approaches in solving lifestyle diseases like obesity, lack of cooperation from the community, unwillingness of the obese patients to participate as well insufficient funds may hinder the process. Persuading the community to change their eating habits may also take a progressive dimension while some may become resistant.

References

Bennett, G., Sagas, M & Dees, W. (2006), ‘Media preferences of action sports consumers: Differences between Generation X and Y’, Sport Marketing Quarterly, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 40–49.

Surez, Arnold. “Does Dieting Make People Fat.” N.p., n.d. Web. <http://www.doesdietingmakepeoplefat.com/>.

Bray, G. A. (2004), ‘Obesity is a chronic, relapsing neurochemical disease’, International Journal of Obesity vol. 28, pp. 34–38.

Costa, CA, Chalip, L, Green, B & Simes, C (2006), ‘Reconsidering the Role of Training in Event Volunteers’ Satisfaction’, Sport Management Review, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 165-182.

Fine JT, Colditz GA., Coakley EH., Moseley G., Manson JE., Willett WC., Kawachi I. (1999), ‘A prospective study of weight change and health-related quality of life in women’. JAMA 1999; vol. 282: pp. 2136–2142.

Heshka, S & Allison, D.B. (2001), ‘Is obesity a disease?’ Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord vol. 25: pp. 1401–1404.

Smith SR, Lovejoy JC, Greenway F, Ryan D, deJonge L, de la Bretonne J, Volafova J, Bray GA.(2001), ‘Contributions of total body fat, abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue compartments, and visceral adipose tissue to the metabolic complications of obesity’. Metabolism, vol. 50: pp. 425–435.