Posts Tagged ‘Obesity’
Diabetes Mellitus
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
DESCRIPTION
Diabetes is a chronic disorder of carbohydrate, fat, and protein metabolism characterized by elevations in fasting blood sugar (glucose) levels. Diabetes occurs if the pancreas does not secrete enough insulin or if the cells of the body become resistant to insulin, the hormone responsible for transporting sugar from the bloodstream into cells. In either case, diabetes results in high levels of sugar in the bloodstream and inadequate levels of sugar entering cells. This situation leads to serious complications including a greatly increased risk of heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, loss of vision, senile cataracts, gangrene in the legs and feet, and impotence in men. (more…)
Obesity
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009
The simplest definition of obesity is an excessive amount of body fat i.e. being greater than 10% above ‘normal’ weight. In terms of body fat percentage obesity is defined as a body fat percentage greater than 30% for women and 25% for men.
According to the results of The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III, the frequency of obesity in adults living in the United States is now greater than one in three. Even more alarming is the number of obese children – the number doubled from 1960 to 1991. This situation is serious as the odds are 4:1 against a child ever achieving normal weight as an adult if they enter their teenage years obese, and 28:1 if they end their teenage years obese.
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