The American Heart Association considers obesity a major cause of heart disease. Large studies show that the risk for heart disease increases with obesity 5. People with severe obesity are at a higher risk having a heart attack. Obesity increases your risk of heart failure. Severe obesity is associated with irregular heartbeats arrhythmias, or a heart beat that is not normal.
These arrhythmias can triple the risk of cardiac arrest cardiac arrest is when the heart stops beating. People with obesity have reduced breath capacity. They are not able to breathe in as much air in and out. These people are at higher risk for respiratory lung infections, asthma, and other respiratory disorders. Asthma has been shown to be three to four times more common among people with obesity 8. More than half of those affected by obesity around 50 to 60 percent have obstructive sleep apnea OSA.
In cases of severe obesity, this figure is around 90 percent 7. OSA is a very serious breathing disorder. It occurs when extra fat in the neck, throat, and tongue block air passageways during sleep. Community, home, childcare, school, health care, and workplace settings can all influence daily behaviors. Therefore, it is important to create environments that make it easier to engage in physical activity and eat healthy foods. Watch The Obesity Epidemic external icon to learn about factors that contribute to the obesity epidemic, as well as several community initiatives to prevent and reduce obesity.
Learn about community strategies to make it easier to be physically active. See strategies to prevent obesity and school health guidelines. Genetic changes in human populations occur too slowly to be responsible for the obesity epidemic. Nevertheless, how people respond to an environment that promotes physical inactivity and intake of high-calorie foods suggests that genes do play a role in developing obesity.
Genes give the body instructions for responding to changes in its environment. Variants in several genes may contribute to obesity by increasing hunger and food intake.
Rarely, a clear pattern of inherited obesity within a family is caused by a specific variant of a single gene monogenic obesity. Most obesity, however, probably results from complex interactions among multiple genes and environmental factors that remain poorly understood multifactorial obesity. Health care practitioners routinely collect family health history to help identify people at high risk of obesity-related diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and some forms of cancer.
Family health history reflects the effects of shared genetics and environment among close relatives. Families cannot change their genes, but they can encourage healthy eating habits and physical activity. Those changes can improve the health of family members—and improve the health history of the next generation.
Learn more about obesity and genomics. What's this? Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity. Related Topics. Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website. Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website. There are also some underlying health conditions that can occasionally contribute to weight gain, such as an underactive thyroid gland hypothyroidism , although these types of conditions do not usually cause weight problems if they're effectively controlled with medicines.
The best way to treat obesity is to eat a healthy reduced-calorie diet and exercise regularly. You may also benefit from receiving psychological support from a trained healthcare professional to help change the way you think about food and eating.
If lifestyle changes alone do not help you lose weight, a medicine called orlistat may be recommended. If taken correctly, this medicine works by reducing the amount of fat you absorb during digestion. Your GP will know whether orlistat is suitable for you. In some cases, weight loss surgery may be recommended. Obesity can cause a number of further problems, including difficulties with daily activities and serious health conditions.
The psychological problems associated with being obese can also affect your relationships with family and friends, and may lead to depression. Being obese can also increase your risk of developing many potentially serious health conditions, including:.
Obesity reduces life expectancy by an average of 3 to 10 years, depending on how severe it is. It's estimated that obesity and being overweight contribute to at least 1 in every 13 deaths in Europe.
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