Discussing Obesity With a Patient - Discussing Obesity With a Friend or Loved One

Discussing Obesity With a Friend or Loved One

Page 1 2

How common is being overweight or obese?
Why is weight such an important issue?

Discussing obesity with a friend or loved one Weight is an extremely important issue in Western society, with the rates of obesity ever growing. Being overweight is linked to numerous health problems, including high blood pressure, heart disease and even cancer. From a medical point of view, this means that weight is a big issue. Our views on body image mean that weight is often a very personal and sensitive issue. As such, addressing the issue of weight can often be very tricky.

How common is being overweight or obese?

Weight issues are often described by the media as an obesity epidemic. Recent Australian Bureau of Statistics figures would support this. Figures from 2005 were quite alarming, showing 62% of men and 45% of women were overweight or obese. In 2005, 54% of the population was overweight, compared to 44% in 1995.

This tool needs Javascript enabled to run.The formula for calculating your body mass index is:
BMI = weight (kilograms) / (height (metres) * height (metres))

For example:
A man who weighs 85 kilograms and is 1.8 metres tall would have a BMI of
BMI = 85 / (1.8 * 1.8)
BMI = 85 / 3.24
BMI = 26.2

This information will be collected for educational purposes, however it will remain anonymous.

Why is weight such an important issue?

There are many risks of being overweight. Many of these are well known, such as high blood pressure (about a third of people have high blood pressure due to weight), high cholesterol, heart disease and diabetes (about 95% of type 2 diabetes is weight related). While these risks are well known in the health community, it is important to realise that being overweight also increases the risk of:

Sleep disturbances:
Obstructive sleep apnoea results in people getting very poor quality sleep and then becoming drowsy throughout the day. This can lead to poor performance at work, poor memory, higher risk of motor vehicle accidents, and higher risk of heart disease.
Arthritis:
Being overweight is a major cause of knee arthritis and plays a big part in arthritis of other joints, including those of the lower back.
Cancer:
Being overweight is strongly linked to many cancers. This includes breast cancer, uterine (endometrial) cancer, bowel cancer, colon cancer, kidney cancer and oesophageal and stomach cancer. For some cancers (especially uterine and kidney) the risk is up to four times higher in overweight and obese people. It is believed that being overweight may account for up to 30% of the most common cancers, like breast and bowel. It now seems that weight loss (and especially an increase in exercise) can significantly reduce cancer risk (especially bowel cancer risk).
Gallbladder disease
Acid reflux / heartburn
Gout
Reduced fertility
Urinary incontinence

Being overweight or obese is second only to smoking as a leading cause of lifestyle preventable death.

Apart from the physical health problems associated with being overweight, there are also emotional and social problems that can arise. These can include discrimination, low self-esteem and even depression.