Health

An allarming disease
by Claudia Sonea

There are too many people worrying about anorexia and other disease that causes an unusual loss of weight, but there is hardly any public outrage when it comes to another disease that has the same degree of importance- obesity. Mens sana in corpore sano says a latin proverb sustaining that a mind can be healthy only in a healthy body and there must be a balance between the two. The largest study ever made by a French top medical research institute in 63 countries in two different periods of time reveals that a quarter of men and women are obese. More than 168,000 people were interviewed and in 2005 adults aged 18 and 80 showed that 24 percent of the men and 27 percent of the women were clinically obese, while 40 percent of men and 30 percent of women were classified as overweight. Lead researcher Beverly Balkau, a scientist at France's National Institute for Health and Medical Research, stated for the US journal of the American Heart Association where the study was published, that people are facing a true epidemic, therefore government s should involve and promote more physical exercise and balanced diets. There is no reason to joke about and foul around, the study showed that the accumulation of midriff fat significantly increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and certain forms of diabetes. BMI stands for the body-mass index used to measure obesity and when it is between 18.5 up to 25 is considered in the healthy range, 25 up to 30 is overweight, and 30 or higher is obese. It can be calculated by dividing one's weight in kilograms to the square of one's height in meters. From one country to another there are different rates of obesity; if for both sexes in East and Southeast Asia the BMI is 7 percent, in Canada is 36. Another problem is the overweight that might eventually lead to obesity and in Asia like in other countries with higher BMI the adult population is facing this problem. Called International Day for Evaluation of Abdominal Obesity the study showed that for men an increase in waist size of 14 centimeters can lead to cardiovascular disease, while an increase of 15 cm in waist in women doubles the risk of heart affections with 40 percent. All in all, it only proves that all things brought to extreme can have a negative effect upon us. Keep yourselves fit with daily exercises and introducing vegetables in your meals. Think about your health before everything else. Stay connected and take care!

related story: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20071105/thl-health-obesity-96993ab_1.html

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.

posted by Blog TechSource @ 3:26 PM