Overweight and Obesity and Disease

We restarted the Weight Loss Support Group on October 12 with a well attended meeting. Marcia, our RN in residence, provided some information about how being overweight or obese can increase our risk of several disease and/or adverse health conditions such as coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancers (endometrial, breast, and colon), high blood pressure, high lipid levels, stroke, liver and gallbladder disease, sleep apnea, respiratory problems, osteoarthritis and gynecological problems. After Marcia's presentation, Cathy, a USAG community member, discussed the health problems she has suffered due to being overweight and how she has lost weight. This blog will review some of the topics Marcia discussed in her presentation.



A common misconception is that fat is just extra skin. It just hangs there and takes up more space. If only this were true. Fat cells need oxygen and nutrients too so your body needs to build more blood vessels to get these things to all parts of the body. Because there is more area to pump the blood too, the heart has to work harder. This can cause left ventricular hypertrophy which is thickening of the wall of the heart's left ventricle. When this wall is thickened, the heart can not work as efficiently stressing the heart. Blood vessels also thicken making them less elastic. Both of these changes can contribute to coronary heart disease.



Fat cells also produce hormones such as estrogen. Premenopausal women get estrogen from ovaries, postmenopausal women primarily get estrogen from fat tissue. Estrogen is linked to breast and endometrial cancer. Breast cancer in postmenopausal women is increased 30% in overweight women and 50% in obese women.



Although not yet proven, scientists theorize that the hormones and other chemical messengers the fat tissue produces causes inflammation which interferes with insulin receptors on cells. When this happens, sugar in the blood cannot get into the cells. It is forced to stay in the blood. This leads to high blood sugar and a diabetes diagnosis.


Studies have shown that you can stop or reverse some of these processes by losing as little as 5% of your body weight. As Cathy pointed out in her talk, she knew she was at a higher risk for diabetes due to her weight but until it actually happened, she was not very concerned about it. Unforetunately, it can happen to anyone. I hope these blogs will help you lose the weight you want to lose.