10 reasons you can't afford to be obese

[email protected] (Health Me Up)
August 29, 2014

ObeseObesity is by definition excess of fat storage rather than weight. Men with more than 25% of total body fat and women with more than 30% total body fat are considered obese.

There are many different ways to classify obesity. In accordance with endocrine and pathogen of the metabolic disease, obesity can be divided into simple obesity, secondary obesity and drug-induced obesity. Obesity, a growing health problem, is the door to a lot of illness and life threatening conditions that can make your life a living hell. Dr Ramen Goel, Head, Bariatric Surgery, Nova Specialty Surgery, Tardeo Mumbai, explains 10 reasons why obesity is bad for your health.

Type 2 diabetes

Obesity is one of the major causes of type 2 diabetes. Studies suggest that higher than normal body weight greatly increases the risk of getting diabetes. Uncontrolled diabetes in return leads to all serious complications such as high BP, heart attacks, brain strokes, blindness, kidney failures and nerve damages with amputations.

Heart attack

Obesity and overweight are linked to several factors that increase one's risk for cardiovascular disease (heart attack). Abdominal obesity or pot belly is said to be one of the major risk factors that can lead to heart ailments.

High blood pressure

Weight gain and hypertension are interconnected as increased weight raises the risk of developing high blood pressure. Weight reduction can actually help normalize the blood pressure. No wonder doctors recommend those suffering from hypertension to exercise and maintain their body weight.

Obstructive sleep apnea

Obesity results in obstructive sleep apnea where the person is not able to sleep well and snores, while remaining drowsy during the day. It is a respiratory problem in which breathing is stopped intermittently during sleep. Besides problem of sleep this results in high BP, heart failure etc.

Gout

An obese person is four times as likely to develop gout- a medical problem that affects joints, as someone with a normal body weight. In gout people have increased uric acid levels which results in painful, red and inflamed joints. With weight loss, the uric acid levels in the blood can decrease.

High cholesterol

One of the major risks in being overweight is the development of high cholesterol. Obesity increases the levels of triglycerides and bad cholesterol (LDL) in the body. Obese people generally have low levels of good cholesterol (HDL). High level of LDL and low level of HDL are major causes of atherosclerosis which results in narrowing of blood vessels leading to heart attack.

GERD

Recent research suggests that obesity is driving rise in people suffering from acid reflux. Obesity increases reflux because abdominal fat puts pressure on the ring of muscle at the bottom of the oesophagus - the 10-inch tube connecting the throat to the stomach - which normally prevents stomach acid from flowing back. The condition leads to heartburn.

Osteoarthritis

Being overweight puts extra stress on the joints, such as the knees, and consequently is a risk factor for developing osteoarthritis. Increased body weight puts more stress on joint surfaces causing damage.

Cancer

Medical research suggests that obesity plays an important role in cancer and that the lifetime risk of cancers is more among obese individuals. Obese people have higher chances of getting bowel, breast and esophageal cancers.

Heart failure

Worldwide research suggests that increased body-mass index is associated with an increased risk of heart failure.

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Agencies
July 4,2020

The Union health ministry on Friday revised the dosage of anti-viral drug remdesivir to be administered to coronavirus patients in the moderate stage of illness from the earlier six days to five days as it issued an updated 'Clinical Management Protocols for COVID-19'.

The drug, administered in the form of injection, should be given at a dose of 200 mg on day one followed by 100 mg daily for four days (total five days), the new treatment protocols stated.

The Health Ministry on June 13 had allowed the use of remdesivir for restricted emergency use in moderate cases under "investigational therapies".

"Under emergency use authorisation, remdesivir may be considered for patients in moderate stage requiring oxygen support," the document stated.

It is not recommended for those with severe renal impairment and high level of liver enzymes, pregnant and lactating women, and those below 12 years, it said.

The ministry also okayed off-label application of tocilizumab, a drug that modifies the immune system or its functioning, and convalescent plasma for treating COVID-19 patients in the moderate stage of illness as "investigational therapies".

It also recommended hydroxychloroquine for patients during the early course of the disease and not for critically-ill patients.

On June 27, the ministry had included an inexpensive, widely used steroid dexamethasone in treatment protocols for COVID-19 patients in the moderate to severe stages of their illness among other therapeutic measures.

The ministry advised use of dexamethasone, which is already used in a wide range of conditions for its anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressant effects, as an alternative choice to methylprednisolone for managing moderate to severe cases of coronavirus infection.

India's COVID-19 cases soared by over 20,000 in a day for the first time taking the country's total tally to 6,25,544 on Friday while the death toll climbed to 18,213 with 379 new fatalities, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated at 8 am.

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Agencies
June 24,2020

New Delhi, Jun 24: Expanding the testing criterion for coronavirus, the Indian Council of Medical Research has said it should be made widely available to all symptomatic individuals across the country.

"Since test, track and treat' is the only way to prevent spread of infection and save lives, it is imperative that testing should be made widely available to all symptomatic individuals in every part of the country and contact tracing mechanisms for containment of infection are further strengthened," it said in an advisory on 'Newer Additional Strategies for COVID-19 Testing' on Tuesday.

In its revised testing strategy for COVID-19 issued on May 18, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had advised testing for all symptomatic Influenza-like illness (ILI) among returnees and migrants within seven days of illness.

All hospitalised patients who develop ILI symptoms, symptomatic individuals living within hotspots or containment zones and healthcare and frontline workers involved in containment and mitigation of coronavirus were also advised testing.

The apex health research body has also advised authorities to enable all government and private hospitals, offices and public sector units to perform antibody-based COVID-19 testing for surveillance to help allay fears and anxiety of healthcare workers and office employees.

The earlier advisories on rapid antibody testing advisories had focused on areas reporting clusters (containment zones), large migration gatherings/evacuees centers and testing of symptomatic ILI individuals at facility level.

Besides, the ICMR on Tuesday also recommended deployment of rapid antigen detection tests for COVID-19 in combination with RT-PCR tests in all containment zones, all central and state government medical colleges and government hospitals, all private hospitals approved by the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare (NABH), all NABL-accredited and ICMR approved private labs, for COVID-19 testing.

All hospitals, laboratories and state governments intending to perform the point-of-care antigen tests need to register with ICMR to obtain the login credentials for data entry.

"ICMR advises all state governments, public and private institutions concerned to take required steps to scale up testing for COVID-19 by deploying combination of various tests as advised," the advisory added.

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News Network
March 6,2020

Mar 6: The spread of the new coronavirus is shining the spotlight on a little-discussed gender split: men wash their hands after using the bathroom less than women, years of research and on-the-ground observations show.

Health officials around the world advise that deliberate, regular handwashing is one of the best weapons against the virus which causes a flu-like respiratory illness that can kill and has spread to around 80 countries.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's online fact sheet "Handwashing: A corporate activity," cites a 2009 study that finds "only 31% of men and 65% of women washed their hands" after using a public restroom.

Social media comments about men's handwashing lapses forced an august British institution to caution visitors about bathroom behaviour this week.

After author Sathnam Sanghera complained on Twitter about "grown," "educated" men in the British Library toilets not washing their hands, the library responded, putting up additional signs reminding patrons to wash their hands in men's and women's bathrooms.

Thanks to "visitor feedback," a spokesman told Reuters, "we have increased further the number of posters in public toilets so that visitors are reminded of the importance of good hygiene at exactly the point where they can wash their hands."

Men and women approach handwashing after using the restroom differently, according to multiple surveys and field studies.

"Women wash their hands significantly more often, use soap more often, and wash their hands somewhat longer than men," according to a 2013 Michigan State University field study conducted by research assistants who observed nearly 4,000 people in restrooms around East Lansing, Michigan.

The study found 14.6% of men did not wash their hands at all after using the bathroom and 35.1% wet their hands but did not use soap, compared to 7.1% and 15.1% of women, respectively.

"If you stand in the men's bathroom at work, and watch men leave, they mostly don't wash their hands if they used the urinal," said one New York City public relations executive, who did not want to be identified for fear of alienating his colleagues.

Since the virus's spread, he's seen an uptick in men's handwashing at work, he noted. "I, for the record, do wash my hands all the time," he added.

Female medical staff in critical care units "washed their hands significantly more often than did their male counterparts after patient contact," a 2001 study published in the American Journal of Infection Control found.

Middle-aged women with some college education had the highest level of knowledge about hand hygiene, a survey published in 2019 by BMC Public Health, an open access public health journal, found.

Early information about coronavirus infection in China shows that men may be more susceptible to the disease. Just over 58% of the more than 1,000 COVID-19 patients reported in China through Jan. 29, 2020, were male, research published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows.

Researchers have not linked the difference to hand hygiene.

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