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Obesity: Grave Risk for Human Health
Obesity, a person is called obese when the Body Mass Index greater than 30. When the BMI is greater than 40, people talk about serious obesity, which implies a grave risk for the person’s health...

Date : January 19, 2007

Obesity, a person is called obese when the Body Mass Index greater than 30. When the BMI is greater than 40, people talk about serious obesity, which implies a grave risk for the person’s health. Body fat is good for humans. It protects internal organs, but Obesity is harmful.

Obesity is detrimental and the growing evidence shows overweight peoples are more likely to develop health problems, such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, certain types of cancer, gout, and gallbladder disease.

Study shows in 2002, about 40,000 new cases of cancer were estimated to be due to obesity. This means that about 3.2 percent of all new cancers are linked to obesity. Other report estimated that 14% of deaths from cancer in men and 20 percent of deaths in women were due to overweight and obesity.

Weight loss can bring great benefits to health. For obese people who have trouble in losing weight through diet and exercise alone, there are a number of prescription drugs that can help. Prescription Diet Pills can reduce body weight within a short period of time but like the all other drugs, diet pills also have some side effects like insomnia, irritation for using the medicine.

Two basic kinds of obesity drugs exists that diminish appetite, and those that diminish fat-absorption.

Diminish Appetite: these prescription drugs works on chemicals in the brain, leading to a reduction in appetite. Most are approved for short-term use (less than one year) only. Meridia (Sibutramine) is the only drug, appetite suppressing drug approved for long-term use.
 
Diminish Fat Absorption: Xenical (Orlistat), which operates in the stomach and small intestine where it inhibits fat-digestion by up to 30%. It does not have an effect on the brain, nervous system, or heart rate. Xenical is considered a safe and secure option for patients with hypertension or heart risks. Patients on Xenical egest all undigested fat, and so are advised to follow a low-fat eating chart to minimize soreness.

Prescription weight loss drugs are permitted only for those with a BMI of 30 and above or 27 and above if they have other risk factors, such as high blood pressure or diabetes. Person should always contact a doctor before using any kind of drug, including a weight loss drug.

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