My new focus, Vitality!
As I said in my previous blog post, I have a new focus which are clinical populations. I’m going to give you a little background about how OBESITY affects people's lives as well as the economy.
In every 100 adults in the UK 26 are obese and 3 are morbidly obese and adult obesity has risen from 15% in 1993 to 26% in 2016. Oh WOW! This just shows how obesity with in the UK is increasing and not decreasing despite the surge in fitness, health and wellbeing in the last 5 years. Despite all the health and fitness initiatives that are running a survey found that 55% of people that were overweight or obese did not perceive themselves to be obese! WHAT?! That’s madness!
Why is being obese so bad, apart from it creating low self-esteem and initiates an excuse for rude names and verbal abuse.
Well, obesity increases other health conditions:
• Joint problems
• Lower back pain
• Respiratory problems
• Hypertension (high blood pressure)
• Coronary heart disease and stroke
• Deep vein thrombosis
• Type 2 diabetes
• Endometrial, breast and colon cancer
• Stress incontinence
• Menstrual abnormalities
• Erectile dysfunction
Men are more likely to be overweight or obese than women and the age group most likely to be overweight are 45-74 years. And obesity on average is responsible for 30,000 deaths a year. Aside from health costs there are also social care costs.
Those that are obese have higher levels of sickness and absence from work which reduces productivity and impose costs on business. Many people are not in employment because of their obesity related health this cost of obesity also poses a major threat to the economy. The healthcare system is hugely affected with the NHS spending £16 billion on obesity related illness.
So, as you can see, something needs to be done on both large and small scales. A powerful and effective intervention to reduce obesity in the UK will not only improve overall health but will also reduce health care, social care and business costs.
DEEP RIGHT? If you’re reading this and thinking “I’m not obese, what can I do to help others and the economy?” Just by educating those around you, family, friends, work colleagues and anyone else you can think of, YOU CAN HELP! They might not realise they are overweight or obese. Im not telling you to approach someone and call them fat, people won’t listen and it will most definitely back fire. Start by sharing this post or any other health related post that similar and see if they like or share it? Or encourage them to go to the gym with you, if not the gym, walks or activities that require physical activity!
All my facts and figures can be found at:
Obesity statistics, Briefing paper March 2018, House of Commons Library
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/07/more-spent-on-treating-obesity-related-conditions-than-on-the-po/