WHY IS WEIGHT LOSS IMPORTANT?

Even if you feel comfortable with excess weight it does not mean that you're healthy.  With 66% of Americans either overweight or obese, we sometimes fail to recognize the impact of that weight on our health and wellbeing.  Many people are diagnosed with disease such as diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea, or reflux disease and don't associate the disease with excess weight.  When we look around, everyone else is just as heavy, and almost everyone is being treated for one or more of these medical problems.

• Did you know that excess weight and obesity is either directly or indirectly responsible for Type II diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol and abnormal lipids, coronary artery disease, reflux disease, gallbladder disease, stroke, sleep apnea, breathing difficulties including asthma, infertility and pregnancy complications, excess hair growth, menstrual disorders, arthritis and orthopedic problems, liver disease, increased surgical complications, Alzheimer’s disease in women, psychological disorders, and with cancers of the breast, prostate, uterus, ovary, colon, and kidney?

Treating the complications of excess weight and obesity costs over $100 billion per year! This problem has surpassed tobacco as the number one preventable disease in the U.S. Weight related liver disease has surpassed alcohol and hepatitis as the most common cause of cirrhosis and liver failure.

The best-kept secret in medicine is that losing weight and KEEPING IT OFF can actually reverse the damage to the body.  Fat cells, known as adipocytes, produce over 100 inflammatory cytokines or chemicals that cause inflammation throughout the body.  Cytokines work on other tissues to create a state called insulin resistance, which sets of a chain reaction in the body leading to the medical problems listed above. A condition known as metabolic syndrome is a deadly combination of risk factors associated with insulin resistance. If you have any three of the five factors listed below, you have metabolic syndrome:

1.      Elevated Blood pressure:  If your blood pressure is over 130/85 or if you are being treated for blood pressure.

2.      Elevated triglycerides:  If your triglyceride number is over 150 mg/dl prior to medical treatment.

3.      Low HDL Cholesterol:  If you have an HDL below 40 mg/dl if you are a male, or below 50 mg/dl if you are a female.

4.      Elevated fasting blood sugar:  If you have a fasting glucose of 100 mg/dl or greater.

5.     Increase waist circumference:  If you have a waist circumference over 35 inches if you are a female or over 40 inches if male.

If you have any three of the above you have a 20% risk of having a major cardiovascular event in the next ten years.

What can losing weight do for you?  Certainly, you will look and feel better.  Did you know that losing 5% of your body weight can reduce the severity of diabetes by 50%?  Or losing 10% of your body weight can reduce the severity of sleep apnea by 50%? Or reduce the onset of arthritis by 50%?

Some of our patients have been able to eliminate the need for insulin, diabetic medications, anti-hypertensive medication, arthritis medications and others by following our plan and losing weight.  Our goal at NovaABC is to help you achieve your goals for a healthy life.