Category: Health

Diet

Poll Watch: Obesity Levels Lowest in Colorado, Highest in West Virginia

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The 2010 Gallup Well-Being Index

According to the latest Gallup Poll.

Colorado, Hawaii, and Utah had the lowest obesity levels in the United States in 2010, although at least 2 in 10 adults were obese in each of these states. West Virginia, Mississippi, and Kentucky had the highest obesity rates, with more than 3 in 10 obese residents living in these states. The prevalence of obesity is nearly eight percentage points higher, on average, in the 11 states with the highest obesity levels compared with the 10 states with the lowest obesity levels — 30.5% vs. 22.6%, respectively.

A very interesting regionalization of obesity levels. I cannot help but think that this is based on culturally-based eating and food choice habits.

Here is the table:

So, what does this mean?

The implications of increasing obesity rates and the associated health outcomes of being obese are extensive for national, state, and local leaders. A recent Gallup study analyzed obesity data from 187 U.S. metro areas and found that if all of them reduced their obesity rates to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s national goal of 15%, the U.S. could save $32.6 billion in healthcare costs annually.

The 2010 state-level findings underscore the connection between high obesity levels and diabetes diagnosis and highlight how widespread this problem is across the country. Obesity and diabetes rates in the U.S. have only worsened since Gallup and Healthways started tracking these conditions daily in January 2008. Strong leadership at the governmental, organizational, and individual level focused on changing health habits, including encouraging more frequent exercise and healthy eating, is needed to begin to reduce these costly and potentially deadly health issues.

There is much work to do to promote healthy diets and more frequent exercise for better health and longevity.

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Health

Obesity ALONE Increases Risk of FATAL Heart Attack

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Another excellent reason to change your lifeestyle and reduce your body weight.

Obese men face a dramatically higher risk of dying from a heart attack, regardless of whether or not they have other known risk factors for cardiovascular disease, a new study reveals.

The finding stems from an analysis involving roughly 6,000 middle-aged men, and it suggests that there is something about carrying around excess weight that contributes to heart disease independent of risk factors such as high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol and arterial disease.

What exactly that something is, however, remains unclear, although the researchers suggest that the chronic inflammation that typically accompanies significant weight gain might be the driving force behind the increased risk.

“Obese, middle-aged men have a 60 percent increased risk of dying from a heart attack than non-obese middle-aged men, even after we cancel out any of the effects of cholesterol, blood pressure and other cardiovascular risk factors,” noted study author Jennifer Logue, a clinical lecturer of metabolic medicine with the British Heart Foundation’s Cardiovascular Research Centre at the University of Glasgow, in Scotland. “This means [that] obesity itself may be causing fatal heart attacks through a factor that we have not yet identified.”

Logue and her colleagues report their observations in the Feb. 15 online issue of Heart.

Read the entire piece.

I know I struggle with weight and am still obese – at least fifty pounds over weight.

However, I know it is important to change my lifestyle, if I want to live longer.

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Health

Do You Think You Can Be Obese and Healthy?

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Obese Vs. Normal Person

Well, not really.

Read all of this excellent piece by Dr. Peter Janiszewski.

The bottom line:

Although a fair number of obese individuals may have a perfect metabolic profile, it appears they may still experience negative consequences of their excess weight. Furthermore, weight loss achieved via lifestyle intervention appears to still bring about some metabolic benefit among previously healthy obese individuals. Given the numerous non-metabolic benefits of weight loss, all obese individuals certainly have something to gain from a modest reduction in body weight as achieved by a healthier lifestyle.

I am staying on my low fat diet and will continue to run/exercise – thank you.

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Health

Can Taking Too Much Vitamin D Be Hazardous to Your Health?

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Graphic courtesy of Health and Fitness

The answer is YES.

The Institute of Medicine has finally weighed in on the issue of how much vitamin D we should be getting.

As the WSJ’s Melinda Beck reports today, the 600 international units now recommended for most of us is three times the old recommendation of 200 IUs, but its a lot less than what some advocates say we need. Low levels of the vitamin have been associated with a host of ills, including heart disease and some cancers, but thats a far cry from showing that increasing intake will protect against those problems.

Patsy Brannon, a professor of nutritional sciences at Cornell University and member of the IOM panel that produced the report, tells the WSJ that the group paid attention to possible risks of taking too much of the vitamin. The group raised the upper limit of safe consumption for vitamin D to 4,000 IUs, saying that the risk for harm begins to increase after that. (It also found a 2,000 IU safe intake ceiling for calcium, the other nutrient covered by the report.)

Patients should always consult with their physician before embarking on any extreme vitamin supplementation.

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