Saturday, November 3, 2012

DISEASE: OBESITY



                                             


Obesity will be the major health chronic problem of this century. Obesity have ‎reached epidermic proportions in some nations and as the Information Age  and the global ‎economy bring homogeneity to life styles. Its incidence in rapidly increasing in developing ‎nations and traditional cultures. Although the underlying cause are debated, the social and ‎economic ramifications of this problem can no longer be ignored. Unfortunately , despite the ‎vast medical literature on the topic, progress in understanding obesity has no kept pace with ‎the magnitude of the problem . Nevertheless , new basic and clinical research has advanced ‎the field dramatically.‎

Malaysia has been experiencing a rapid phase of industrialization and urbanization in ‎recent decades and has often been recognized as a role model for developing economies. ‎Statistics available from several Ministries for the last two decades suggest that as the ‎population achieve affluence, their intake of energy, fats and sugars increase, as reflected in ‎the rising and now substantial size of the food importation bills. The ‘westernization’ of global ‎eating habits has also brought about an increase in the number of fast-food outlets in Malaysia ‎during the last decade.WHO further projects that by 2015 , approximately 2.3 billion adults ‎will be overweight and more than 700 million will be obese. At least 20 million children under ‎the age of 5 years are overweight globally in 2005. Once considered a problem only in high ‎income countries, overweight and obesity are now dramatically on the rise in low and middle ‎income countries, particularly in urban settings.‎
Until fairly recently, doctors paid little attention to their patient’s weight or body type. ‎Being “portly” or “stout” was a sign of wealth in the early twentieth century. Then doctors ‎begun to regard physical mass and body fat as important markers of health. Weight ‎measurement alone does not distinguish between pounds from body fat and those from lean ‎body mass or muscle. Being overweight means having an access of total body weight based ‎on population averages for people of your same height. And body type. Athletes and very ‎muscular people may be overweight, but that does not mean they obese. Obesity is an access ‎of body fat regardless of weight. In other resource, obesity is an excess proportion of total ‎body fat that may impair health . A person is considered obese when his or her weight is 20% ‎or more above normal weight. Obesity means having too much body fat. It is different from ‎being overweight, which means weighing too much.‎ ‎ Overweight and obese people are at risk ‎for many serious medical conditions. Obesity is not just a cosmetic consideration; it is a dire ‎dilemma directly harmful to one's health. In the United States, roughly 300,000 deaths per ‎year are directly related to obesity, and more than 80% of these deaths are in patients with a ‎BMI over 30. For patients with a BMI over 40, life expectancy is reduces significantly (as ‎much as 20 years for men and five years for women). Obesity also increases the risk of ‎developing a number of chronic diseases.‎ ‎ The term “obesity” comes from the Latin obedere ‎which means “overeat”. Ob means “over” and edere means “to eat”. Obesity occurs when ‎your body stores too much fat. This lead to an unhealthy weight gain. “unhealthy” is the key ‎word her. Being obese is not same as being overweight. Being overweight is simply mean the ‎people overweight is more than is typical for people of same height and age.‎
Health-care experts have developed tools for measuring healthy weight and body mass. The ‎most widely used measurement of adult weight is body mass index (BMI) , which measures ‎your weight in relation to your height. A formula yields a number that provides more accurate ‎measures of body fat. Belgian scientist Adolpha Quetelet came up with the BMI method. Its ‎calculations are based on the metric system of measurement. BMI is calculated by dividing ‎the weight in kg by the square of the height in meter. Health experts say that , for adults, a ‎BMI of 18.5 and 24.9 represent ideal weight. Research  shows that people who have BMI  of ‎‎25 to 29.9 are described as overweight. And those with a BMI between 30 and 39.9 are ‎termed obese. A BMI of 40 or more usually means having more than 45 kg of excess weight.  ‎Weight experts label people with BMI in this range as morbidly obese. Their weight may be ‎life-threatening because many health problem occur with this excess.‎
Other more accurate methods for measuring body mass include hydrodensitometry and ‎dual x-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Hydrodensitometry uses a tank of water to weight ‎someone. Because the densities of bone and muscle are higher than water and fat is less dense ‎than water, doctors can compare the weight of the person out of the water with the submersed ‎weight. They use a standard formula to come up with relative fat-to-lean composition. In ‎DXA , an X-ray machines scans the entire body and shows exactly where the fat is ‎distributed. Doctors also use skin fold testing this is a kind of pinch test using a device known ‎as a skin caliper. Skin fold testing measures the thickness of fat beneath the skin at certain ‎points on the body and compares result with healthy norms.‎
The fundamental cause of obesity and overweight is an energy imbalance between ‎colories consumed on one hand and calories expended on the other hand. Obesity occurs ‎when a person consumes more calories than he or she burns. For many people this boils down ‎to eating too much and exercising too little. The Holy Prophet warned us about the dangers ‎and health hazards of overeating. He advised us to fill our stomach with 1/3 food, 1/3 for ‎drink, and 1/3 for air.‎ ‎ ‎
Holy Prophet saying: “No human ever filled a vessel worse than the stomach. Sufficient for ‎any son of Adam are some morsels to keep his back straight. But if it must be, then one third ‎for his food, one third for his drink and one third for his breath.” ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ Ibn Masaweh, a Muslim ‎doctor, said after reading this hadith: “If the people only used these words, they would avoid ‎all diseases and maladies and the clinics and pharmacies would be idle.”‎
But there are other factors that also play a role in obesity,one of them is age, as you get ‎older, your body's ability to metabolize food slows down and you do not require as many ‎calories to maintain your weight. This is why people note that they eat the same and do the ‎same activities as they did when they were 20 years old, but at age 40, gain weight. Next ‎factor is gender. Women tend to be more overweight than men. Men have a higher resting ‎metabolic rate meaning they burn more energy at rest than women, so men require more ‎calories to maintain their body weight. Additionally, when women become postmenopausal, ‎their metabolic rate decreases. That is partly why many women gain weight after menopause.‎
Obesity (and thinness) tends to run in families. In a study of adults who were adopted ‎as children, researchers found that participating adult weights were closer to their biological ‎parents' weights than their adoptive parents'. The environment provided by the adoptive ‎family apparently had less influence on the development of obesity than the person's genetic ‎makeup. In fact, if your biological mother is heavy as an adult, there is approximately a 75% ‎chance that you will be heavy. If your biological mother is thin, there is also a 75% chance that ‎you will be thin. Nevertheless, people who feel that their genes have doomed them to a ‎lifetime of obesity should take heart. Many people genetically predisposed to obesity do not ‎become obese or are able to lose weight and keep it off. ‎
There are a lot of scholar in economy either in islamic scholar or international scholar.Every ‎scholar have their own perspective and studies result. In islamic scholar, Ibnu Sina has ‎touched about obesity in medical theory. He said disease not specific to one part. For Ibnu ‎Sina, conditions not specific to one bodily part. If one is obese he or she has tendency to face ‎many  obesity related health risks and problems.  Obesity is also linked to many health ‎conditions like diabetes, cancer, breathing problems and sleep apnea.‎
Although Roman were famous gorging at sumptuous banquets, obesity was frowned ‎up. The Roman physician Galen (c. 129-199) was the first to Davide obese people into types. ‎The first was moderate obesity , which Galen saw as a sequence of life and aging. This type ‎was acceptable and show economic success. The second type immoderate obesity was a ‎character flaw from a life of overindulgence and lust.Galen believed that people with second ‎type, of obesity was impossible to treat and were defiant in nature. He even wrote of his ‎struggle with overindulgence in his on work On Passions.‎
Why don’t we just follow the advice? Why on earth do we have an obesity problem, ‎let alone an epidemic, when we so desperately want to be slim?Zoë Harcombe set out to ‎answer that question in the late 1980’s and her book The Obesity Epidemic: What caused it? ‎How can we stop it? is the culmination of that quest. At the time of starting her research, ‎obesity levels for men and women in the UK had reached double figures. By the end of the ‎millennium, UK obesity rates were 22.6% and 25.8% for men and women respectively and ‎have worsened further since.‎
In international scholar, Zoë was the first person from her state school to graduate ‎from Cambridge University, having won a scholarship to read mathematics/economics at this ‎famous institution. The paradox of escalating obesity and overwhelming desire to be slim has ‎been a constant fascination to her.During her 20′s (and before the Internet made research ‎relatively easy), Zoë discovered that there are three medical conditions that cause insatiable ‎food cravings. She also experienced all three first hand. And so her first book came about – ‎the answer to the million dollar question. Why do you overeat? When all you want is to be ‎slim was published in 2004 and it continues to change the lives of people who read it.‎
Since putting her own advice into practice, Zoe has lived craving free and a constant 8 ‎stone for over 15 years.“Stop Counting Calories & Start Losing Weight: The Harcombe Diet” ‎was published in 2008, to share the message as simply and passionately as possible with ‎readers world-wide. By popular demand, a recipe book came out at the same time. Zoë has ‎also appeared on TV and Radio and writes regularly for magazines and newspapers. ‎
Zoë is a qualified nutritionist with a Diploma in Diet & Nutrition and a Diploma in Clinical ‎Weight Management, but she is first and foremost an obesity researcher. She works ‎exclusively in the area of weight and obesity and reads, writes and talks about obesity as ‎many hours as possible, seven days a week. Her complete goal and drive is to reverse the ‎obesity epidemic. She has clear views on how it started and what we need to do to stop it and ‎these were published in 2010 in the 134,000 word book: “The Obesity Epidemic: What caused ‎it? How can we stop it?“.Ref : Colleen S.W. Rand and Alex M. C. Macgregor, “Successful ‎weight loss following obesity surgery and the perceived liability of morbid obesity”, ‎International Journal of Obesity, (1991).‎
Among women who have been treated for breast cancer, heavier women are more ‎likely to have their disease come back and more likely to die of cancer, according to a U.S. ‎study.Previous studies have tied obesity to a higher chance of getting breast cancer and a ‎worse outcome in women who have already been diagnosed.‎
But the current study, said lead researcher Joseph Sparano, associate chairman of ‎medical oncology at the Montefiore Einstein Center for Cancer Care in the Bronx, New ‎York."Obesity seemed to carry a higher risk of breast cancer recurrence and death, even in ‎women who were healthy at the time that they were diagnosed, and despite the fact that they ‎received the best available chemotherapy and hormone therapy," he said.‎
The relationship with weight may be because certain hormones that are linked to body ‎weight may also fuel tumor growth in the most common form of the disease, known as ‎estrogen receptor-positive cancer.Data for the study came from trials sponsored by the U.S. ‎National Cancer Institute of women with stage I, II and III breast cancer who were given ‎standardized treatment, with drug doses adjusted based on weight.Out of close to 5,000 ‎women treated for cancer, about one-third were obese and another one-third were ‎overweight.Over the next eight years, one in four women had their cancer come back and 891 ‎died - including 695 from breast cancer.‎

Sparano and his colleagues found that compared to women of normal weight, obese ‎women were 40 percent more likely to have a breast cancer recurrence over the study period ‎and 69 percent more likely to die from breast cancer or any other cause.Even among ‎overweight but not obese women, there was also a general trend toward a higher risk of ‎recurrence and death with increasing weight.‎

The link was especially strong for women with estrogen receptor-positive cancer, ‎which accounts for two-thirds of breast cancers.Although the new study can't prove that extra ‎weight and fat have a direct impact on certain breast cancers, Sparano said it was "biologically ‎plausible."Women carrying extra fat have been shown to make more estrogen, meaning that ‎this may fuel the growth of the estrogen receptor-positive tumors, he said."Insulin levels are ‎known to be higher in patients who are obese because they develop insulin resistance... (and) ‎insulin can stimulate the growth of breast cancer cells," he added.‎

This is true story about morbidly obese. I'm 24 years old and weigh 129 kgs and am 5'2 ‎in height and am the biggest in my family. although my other family members are big too, ‎nobody is as morbidly obese as me. i was very thin as a child but when puberty hit, i started ‎gaining weight and slowly food became my only friend. every time I'd have a fight or i felt ‎stressed out or sad or angry, I'd eat comfort foods and yes, i felt good afterwards but all this ‎has just made me become fatter and fatter with passing years and i cant seem to stop it. it has ‎gotten to the point where I have isolated myself from the world for the past 2 years, do not exit ‎the house. i have tried many times to change but only after a few days my will power dies and ‎i go back to my old ways, i know i need to do something now because at this rate i might end ‎up at the hospital and so i need help and support. my sister is supportive towards me but she ‎really doesn't understand all the problems of my weight, she doesn't know how it feels when ‎people humiliate me or mock me on the street because of my weight or how petrified i am of ‎small, fragile furniture. i was a very good student but somehow my weight issues have always ‎kept me from experiencing life as a normal teenager and young person, and so i made up for ‎the frustration of not having a boyfriend or friends by eating, wasting time watching TV and ‎spending excessive time on the Internet. its been almost 10 years since my weight problems ‎started and i think most of those years were spent making virtual friends than real ones, i ‎always ended up losing my real friends because i couldn't do activities with them or didn't feel cool ‎enough to be part of their gangs. I've been depressed throughout this time and often ‎contemplate ending my life. my family environment isn't very healthy because my parents split ‎up and I have also been sexually and verbally abused. i live with my mom and she hates me, ‎keeps cursing me for not working, for being so ugly and tells me that it would be better if i ‎died. i rebel by abusing her back and stuffing my face with more food. I'm tired of this life, of ‎so much sadness and tears, of feeling so under confident and defeated.‎

In my own perspective, there should be no reason for Muslims to be obese or for that ‎matter over weight. Because Islam is Syumul which is mean comprehensive. Guidelines for ‎healthy lifestyle are provided. We just need to follow that rule. InsyaAllah, with Allah ‎permission we can avoid from obesity. Unfortunately ,70% of the womenfolk in Gulf ‎countries are obese according to research and according to Economist, the countries with most ‎obese population are Muslim or Arab countries. This just shows that Muslims have a long way ‎to go to become better followers of Islam.‎

Lastly, what i want to remind is body was gift from Allah that we all must treat in the ‎best way. Eat to the point you are not hungry. Do not eat to the point you are being full. ‎Eating well can help decrease disease and cancer by 50%. The hazard of obesity can be prove ‎by holy Quran in “do not cast yourselves into destruction by your own hands”(2:195)‎

In conclusion, obesity is defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that ‎presents a risk to health. It is the disease of this era which exhausts the resources of countries. ‎To understand why people become obese, it helps to understand how and why we store ‎fat.We may know the term “calorie” is linked with food. As usual Allah almighty in His holy ‎book preceded all scientists and researchers in solving different humanity's problems. Very ‎few people know that Islam has multiple ways of making sure that people do not become ‎obese, or for that matter even a little overweight. In fact a practicing Muslim should not be ‎Obese unless of course due to some medical condition. There are some listing of the ways in ‎which an Islamic lifestyle can keep us fit and healthy.‎

Firstly is with Ramadan Fasting. This is the most well known way. Fasting helps our ‎body in many different ways and the best way is by teaching our body discipline in eating. ‎People restrain them self from eating or drinking from dawn till sunset. After sunset they may ‎eat a bit more than the usual dinner, but is still less than eating two times and the junk food ‎that we keep stuffing ourselves with. (And those who, when they spend, are neither ‎extravagant nor niggardly, but hold a medium (way) between those (extremes).)(Sûrat Al-‎Furqân-verse67).Ramadan is a month to cure all eating disorders.‎

Next is walking to Mosque which is practising exercise. Praying in Mosque is highly ‎recommended and along with that its recommended walking to mosque. The more you walk ‎to mosque, the more rewards there are for the believers. One of the hadiths state, "The person ‎who will receive the highest reward for Salat (prayer) is the one who comes to perform it in ‎the mosque from the farthest distance."‎

Eating dates also one of action to prevent obese. Dates also known as Khajoor have ‎been mentioned in Quran and Hadith as a super food. Dates was one of the main nutritional ‎food used by the Arabs in the desert and was their main source of supply of many vitamins ‎and minerals. In Quran, Allah tells Mary (pbuh) via angel, "And shake the trunk of the palm ‎tree towards thee – thou wilt cause ripe dates to fall upon thee". Allah is emphasising a food ‎by name to tell us that its beneficial for us. We learn from the hadith that prophet (pbuh) said, ‎‎"When any of you breaks his fasting he should eat dates cause dates are blessing, if he didn’t ‎find dates then drink water cause water is purifying". Another hadith says, "A household that ‎has dates doesn’t feel hunger". Nowadays people feel ashamed of eating dates. They would ‎only eat it in Ramadan as its recommended but other times this super food is ignored as its ‎cheap.‎

1 comment:

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