Without the White Coat
By Florentino P. Alerta II M.D.

OBESITY… killing me slowly

 In this column I have written a lot of articles on obesity and the risk it will cause us in the future. Are we partly to be blamed as parents that our children are turning into flabby monsters of lard? If we look back down the road there is one thing that keep on coming back into our minds it is the diet that we feed our kids… will you say it is much more of an Americanized-diet bringing to a point that most of our kids will always devour that fast food meal of fried chicken or spaghetti. At this point in time we keep asking ourselves again. Are the children eating the right stuff? I think it is just right that obesity is eating our kids away. In the US obesity had been a big concern in the health care system; it is the complications that obesity will bring in the future. Heard about the movie “Supersize”? It had shown us the long effects (6 months) of consuming and devouring on fast food meals from “Macs” to “fries” to the largest carbonated drinks your eyes can feast upon, how about a liter diet soda in a big and humongous cup that fits your car's cup tray. Is America killing its people through the foodstuff that they eat? Can the national government address this problem before it is too late or is it already too late?

Like our Caucasian brothers (Cano!, some are afro-americans,or latino-americans) the Filipinos tend to follow their foot steps, we all like something that is either made in the US or “tatak US”, as the world's greatest imitators we tend to imitate all the traits that is so detrimental to our lifestyle and health from our American brothers. Is it the invention of the refrigerator that we tend to have a shorter lifespan dwelling on frozen foods, and tend to forget the freshness of the vegetables and fruits, and the organically grown food stuffs for our daily consumption.

Chubby kids doesn't mean that they are always healthy. At that early age they already have foam cells in their blood vessels, a very good precursors for your atherosclerotic plagues. Nowadays, it is very hard to control obesity. We may have the will power to lose it, but the temptation of gluttony is always great. Then comes the medically supervised programs and weight reduction programs, it simply shows that it is hard to do it on your own. The first part of dealing with the problem is to accept the fact that we are obese or overweight then the reality comes on taking the first step in weight reduction and diet management with a change and modification of lifestyle followed by daily physical exercises. Remember the risk factors identified with obesity-impaired glucose tolerance, non-insulin dependent, hyperinsulinemia, hyperlipidemia(cholesterol), hypertension, degenerative arthritis and the dreaded cancer.

Obesity as gauged thru our body mass index (BMI) is the ratio of weight to height, underweight is for BMI under 18.5 the risk is low, normal range BMI is 18.5 to 22.9 and the risk is average, pre-obesity or the overweight individual will have a BMI of 23.0 to 24.9 with an increased risk of co-morbidities, the Obese class I the BMI falls in the range of 25.0 to 29.9 with moderate risk in co-morbidities, the Class II Obese individuals with a BMI greater than 30 will have a severe risk of co-morbidity. A good measure of health risk is to check for the waist circumference of the individuals, for men increased risk is seen over 90cm (35inches), which substantially increases for those over 102 cm (40 inches), for the female counterpart over 80 cm (32 inches) for an increased risk and those over 88 cm (35inches) for the substantially risked. This are the medical condition related to obesity HYPERTENSION, CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE, DYSLIPIDEMIA, HYPERINSULINEMIA , type 2 DIABETES, SLEEP APNEA, OSTEOARTHRITIS, INFERTILITY, OTHER CONDITIONS— lower extremity venous stasis disease, gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD) and urinary stress incontinence. Stay fit, exercise regularly, and eat your veggies.