Obesity in America Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Obesity in America - Research Paper Example 3). In the speech that she made on 20 February 2004, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Julie Gerberding referred to obesity as an epidemic in America, â€Å"If you looked at any epidemic -- whether it’s influenza or plague from the middle ages -- they are not as serious as the epidemic of obesity in terms of the health impact on our country and our society† (Gerberding cited in Kvicala, 2003). Hearne et al. (n.d.) record some very alarming statistics with respect to obesity of Americans, some of which are discussed in this and the following paragraph. Obesity is one of the most significant causes of health related problems in America. Obese people are 50 to 100 times more susceptible to premature death than normal weight people. It is estimated that obesity may soon become a more prominent reason of preventable death as compared to tobacco in America. Every year, up to 400000 deaths occur because of physical inactivity and poor di et. Number of diseases caused by obesity exceeds 30. Diseases for which obesity serves as a causal factor include but are not limited to high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, cancer and coronary heart disease. Diabetes may also cause blindness in adults, failure of kidney and the patients may occasionally have to undergo amputations. Number of patients of diabetes has increased above 50 per cent in the last decade and this percentage is expected to increase more by 165 per cent in the coming five decades. Presently, 18 million Americans are patients of diabetes while 41 million people are in the pre-diabetic phase. There has been noticed an increase in the number of children that suffer from type 2 diabetes that was considered as a form of adult-onset diabetes until now. Individuals that acquire type 2 diabetes in childhood or adolescence are at increased risk of suffering from stroke, kidney failure and heart diseases when they grow up. Those kids are getting adult-type diabetes b ecause they're overweight. We're seeing an absolute epidemic of diabetes in the schools in this country because children are just not getting the right exercise †¦ The gap between what they're eating and what they're expending is getting larger on an annual basis. (Gerberding cited in Kcivala, 2003). Cost associated with obesity is another problem that the government of America has to address. According to the estimates made by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the direct and indirect expenses of obesity per year sum up to above $117 billion (Wechsler, 2004). These expenses include but are not limited to loss of productivity and medical expenses. In 2003, medical expenses that could be attributed