The Effects of Obesity Essay -- Health and Wellness

Obesity is a well documented problem in the United States. Every year, billions of dollars are spent on this epidemic and the plethora of diseases and issues it causes. This has been shown to be a problem at the state as well as the national level. In order to better understand the impact it has, we will discuss the issue of obesity as a whole, the problems associated with this disease, the costs of those problems, as well as possible solutions to this growing problem in our country. For the purposes of this paper, it is important to give reference points with regards to certain key definitions. The generally accepted way of defining obesity is in the National Institutes of Health Weight Classification system. This system relies on the use of BMI as computed using the weight in kilograms divided by the height in meters squared. The following cutoff points are given for the defined words: underweight- BMI 30.0 kg/m2. These benchmarks will be the defined values for the given words throughout this paper. According to a brief prepared by Dr. Eric Wright for the Indiana Center for Urban Policy and the Environment in May of 2006, nearly 97 million adults in the United States are obese or overweight. That number had doubled in the previous 30 years and is predicted to continue that upward trend. This means that nearly 2 out of every 3 adults in the US are obese or overweight. The surgeon general, Dr. Richard Carmona reported in 2003 that 1 out of every 8 deaths in the US is caused by an illness that is directly correlated to obesity. Obesity is caused by a number of different factors, the main ones being: inacti... ...s, Blacks Had 51% Higher and Hispanics Had 21% Higher Obesity Rates." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC. Web. 1 Jan. 2012. Finkelstein, Eric A., Ian C. Fiebelkorn, and Guijing Wang. "Obesity - State-Level Estimates of Annual Medical Expenditures Attributable to Obesity[ast][ast]." Nature Publishing Group : Science Journals, Jobs, and Information. Web. 1 Jan. 2012. Carmona, Richard H. "The Obesity Crisis in America." Office of the Surgeon General (OSG). Web. 1 Jan. 2012. Paddock, Ph.D, Catherine. "Medical News Today News Article." Medical News Today: Health News. Medical News Today. Web. 1 Jan. 2012.