Obesity is a disease by itself affecting the heart- video presentation-By Dr Harold Gunatillake

Is it a risk factor for heart disease?
Transcript:
Yes, that is our discussion today.
Prevalence of obesity world-wide is becoming an uncontrollable disease and has increased over the last few decades reaching epidemic proportions.
There is one exceptional country, the French seem to walk everywhere, and their healthy lifestyle makes them to stay fit.
Obesity is defined simply having an excess fat mass in your body
The World Health Organization WHO defines obesity as an excess fat mass that negatively affects health.
Obesity is measured in body mass index (BMI), which is a person’s weight in kilograms divided by the square of his or her height in meters.
A person with a BMI of 30 or more is considered obese.
A person with a BMI equal to or more than 25 is considered overweight.
In the US. 93 million Americans are affected by obesity. In Sri Lanka there have been an escalation of obesity rates attributed to change in lifestyle, characterized by consumption of energy-dense unhealthy food prevalent in the urban areas.

Obesity is emerging as the major diet associated health problem in Sri Lanka. The prevalence of overweight, obesity and central obesity among Sri Lankan adults were 25.2%, 9.2% and 26.2%, respectively in 2005–2006, as defined by Asian Body Mass Index (BMI) cutoffs, and there is a clear upward trend People who are overweight eat a calorie surplus- diet for a long time They have a moderate to high muscle mass, and High fat mass:
Lean body mass (LBM) is a part of body composition that is defined as the difference between the total body weight and body fat weight.
Treating obesity is important to reduce both metabolic and cardiovascular disease. This involves education on nutrition, physical activities, lifestyle changes and medication.
You only must visit Colombo, the capital city to see how the rich and the poor equally indulge in street foods available almost on every street corner, including recreational Galle Face Green. These foods are high carbs, fried, with added salt and oils., pleasing to your taste buds, and addictive, too.
When you heat fats or oils to high temperatures, as with deep-frying, they can become oxidized, creating free radicals. This effect is amplified when cooking fats are reused, as they may be in restaurants and street food outlets.
Such free radicals can harm your body. They directly impair cell membranes and damage your DNA, resulting in the mutations that can lead to cancer.
It is also observed that low calcium intake and low vitamin D status among Sri Lankans are also associated with obesity. It is also observed that the obesity rates were highest in the most educated groups in Sri Lanka against the rural people.
In your youth obesity problem is not accompanied with any chronic diseases in most developed countries, though the incidence of obesity is becoming a problem with school going kids. but among adult’s obesity seems to be associated with type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, cancer, and depression, among many others.
There are seven factors: smoking, unhealthy eating, lack of physical activity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and high glucose blood levels, that go in hand with the obesity problem.
Obesity is a risk factor for cardiovascular health.
Today it is not considered as a physiological weight gain to over-eating, but it is considered as a disease by itself.
The American Medical Association has officially recognized obesity as a chronic disease.
It is a complex disease involving an excessive amount of body fat stored in fat cells. It is a medical problem that increases your risk of other diseases and health problems such as heart disease, diabetes, asthma, high blood pressure, stroke, cancer, sleep apnea, osteoarthritis, liver disease and gall bladder disease, among others.
As obesity is linked with diabetes and high blood pressure, the risk of chronic kidney disease is high. Recent studies have revealed that even in the absence of these risks, obesity itself may promote chronic kidney disease.
Obese individuals require more blood to supply oxygen and nutrients to their bodies which leads to increase in high blood pressure, which is also a risk factor for heart disease.
Your body will also require more pressure to move this blood round This explains why you get high blood pressure with obesity. High blood pressure is also a common cause of heart disease, which are sadly more
common among obese people.
That explains why obese people are more prone to heart disease.
Cholesterol and triglyceride levels seem to be high among obese people and is one of the main causes of heart disease.
So, obesity is among the leading causes of elevated cardiovascular disease mortality and
morbidity. Fat cells produce harmful cytokines
The mechanisms through which obesity increases CVD risk through cytokines produced by the adipose tissue which can induce cardiac dysfunction and can promote the formation of
atheromatous plaques. When early obesity and chronic heart disease or heart failure co-exist, the prognosis is much better compared to individuals who are normal or underweight who gets heart disease
This phenomenon is called the “Obesity paradox” Obesity is defined as excess of fat mass in your body. Individuals with fat mass also has an increased lean mass. Lean body mass (LBM) is a part of body composition that is defined as the difference between the total body weight and body fat weight.
Increased lean mass may explain part of the obesity paradox as it is associated with
improved cardiorespiratory fitness. As mentioned earlier obesity is associated with an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease, particularly heart failure and coronary heart disease.
A 10 kg higher body weight is associated with a 3.0mm Hg higher systolic and 2.3 mm higher diastolic blood pressure. This also increases an estimated 12% increase in coronary heart disease and 25% increased risk for stroke.
Bottomline:
We have discussed what risk factors come from being obese. We said it is a disease by itself. Daily vigorous exercise, aerobic exercises, physical drill, swimming with a controlled vegetable-based diet will help you to reduce your body weight. Start today, you will not go wrong.
Thank you for watching this video and listening to my talk.
Take care and Goodbye for now.

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