Health and Social Impacts of Obesity

Introduction

Today, we have two groups of people, young people who are struggling with obesity and others who do not care. We are in a time where being obese can be detrimental to good health and for some, it may not be a problem. As obesity increases in young people, it is also increasing the cases of diabetes, and other chronic diseases related to nutrition that young people do not respect today. However, to be able to understand the problem of obesity well, we must know what it is to suffer from obesity. Obesity occurs when the body has an excess of accumulated fat. The difference between overweight and obesity, but both are the result of the sum of bone weight, fat and muscle mass. However, obesity focuses on the calories that human beings eat without burning them. Obesity occurs when young people ingest more calories than they usually consume in their daily activities, causing obesity. While obesity has many reasons to affect our health,  consequently there are stronger reasons to start a healthier life. Obesity tends to affect the confidence of teens causing many deadly diseases, but it also has many ways to be prevented.

The effect of obesity

Research has shed light on the effects of obesity when care is not being take. The World Health Organization obtained an increase of 41 million cases of obesity in young children, this happening in the African Region (World Health Organization, 2018). On the other hand, the information collected about young students showed that 3 out of 4 students suffer from obesity and present a possible cardiac problem.

On the other hand, it can be attributed to obesity some important effects in the lives of young people being these the most important, such as the lack of confidence and bullying generated by obesity. We will now examine each effect in this study.

The Lack of Confidence

Nowadays, adolescence is the most difficult stage for all young people because most of the changes and situations that young people will be experienced. It is a fact that young people who were not overweight when they were children could suffer from it during adolescence and adult life. To better understand this point where obesity affects the lack of confidence, the following question should be understood from the point of view of young people: Why does obesity affect the self-confidence of young people? If you answer this question from the adult and investigative point of view, you may not find a very good relationship between them. The best way to understand this problem is to observe it from the position of the young people.

Youth is governed by different standards such as fashion, appearance, economy, and others. These rules cause a person who suffers from obesity lose his/her self-confidence. Young people who suffer from problems of trust are often withdrawn or suffer rejection in their environment. For these reasons, young people who suffer from obesity often suffer from psychological illnesses, and even go to extremes such as the desire to commit suicide.

Bullying

To better understand the following effect of obesity in young people, a person must carefully analyze the fact that obesity has always provoked bullying. The definition of bullying is given as aggressive behavior among young people, being the people with obesity the most frequently involved.. In this way, obesity is affected by bullying according to the study carried out in the article Obesity and bullying: different effects for boys and girls, written by L J Griffiths and others, where the description of types of bullying in young people is mentioned (Table 1).

(L J Griffiths, 2005)

Those who suffer from obesity are more likely to be victims of bullying. Being a victim of this problem generates stress in the victim who in turn suffers from obesity, thus losing control.

According to the studies carried out, it was possible to find three different types of roles in the participation of harassers or abusers. The first role is played by open abusers who abuse others very frequently and openly, the second played by victims who suffer from abuses more than once a week, and finally the overt neutrals who by not participating in the abuse become the abused. (L J Griffiths, 2005).

Healthy problems

Nowadays, obesity can be related too many other diseases. These occur when the individual does not follow a correct diet. In most of the cases, young people are the most prone to suffer from one or more of these effects classified by heart problems, vascular system malfunction, respiratory difficulties, and many more.

Diseases

Currently, most cancerous problems can be attributed to obesity. This is due to the consequences of not having a diet. If you analyze in depth the simple reasons why people can suffer from obesity, you can reach a simple conclusion DOS PUNTOS the lack of nutritional control in children. Balanced nutrition accompanied by a good exercise routine is the only way to avoid suffering from diseases caused by obesity.

Obesity is related to the types of cancer that occur. Among these types that are related to obesity we can find: breast cancer, colorectal, uterine, kidney, head and neck, an esophagus, pancreas, endometrium, prostate, gallbladder, and thyroid.

Risks

The risks that obesity causes in the human body should not be measured by the diseases that they can cause. Having a disease is usually part of genetic inheritances or infections. To analyze these we must think about what points should be taken as variables. The points to take in count in this analysis are the age of the individual, the genetic inheritance that he / she possesses, food environment, and more. After knowing the variables, it must be taken into account that being obese at an early age can take the individual into a position where contraction of the most terrible diseases, like cancer and diabetes, is very common.

By analyzing obesity and its risks, we come to understand the importance of good nutrition. Other risks that can be attributed to obesity are the hormonal problems they cause.

To consider yourself a person on risk of obesity there are many factors that we must analyze as the food environment and habits that can be modified, but age , family history , and genetics are factors that can´t be modified.

References

• Björntorp, P. (2001). International textbook of obesity. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons.
• Bray, G. A., & Bouchard, C. (2014). Handbook of obesity. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
• Geel, M. V., Vedder, P., & Tanilon, J. (2014). Are overweight and obese youths more often bullied by their peers? A meta-analysis on the relation between weight status and bullying. International Journal of Obesity,38(10), 1263-1267. doi:10.1038/ijo.2014.117
• Griffiths, L. J., Wolke, D., Page, A. S., Horwood, J. P., & ALSPAC Study Team. (2006, February). Obesity and bullying: Different effects for boys and girls. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2082670/
• Obesity Stigma and Bias – npjournal.org. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.npjournal.org/article/S1555-4155(16)30188-X/pdf
• OMS | Datos y cifras sobre obesidad infantil. (2017, October 16). Retrieved from https://www.who.int/end-childhood-obesity/facts/es/
• Sahoo, K., Sahoo, B., Choudhury, A. K., Sofi, N. Y., Kumar, R., & Bhadoria, A. S. (2015). Childhood obesity: Causes and consequences. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4408699/
• Smart food policies for obesity prevention – thelancet.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(14)61745-1.pdf
• Xu, S., & Xue, Y. (2015). Pediatric obesity: Causes, symptoms, prevention and treatment. Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine,11(1), 15-20. doi:10.3892/etm.2015.2853