Numerous studies over the past three decades point to a strong connection between a person’s weight and their risk of several chronic diseases including diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers.
Experts agree eating right and staying active not only help with your outward appearance, these things can help you stay healthy into old age, elevate your mood, and can improve your quality of life.
If swimsuit season isn’t motivation enough to lose those excess pounds, here are eight more for inspiration.
1- Walter Willett, the Fredrick John Stare Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition Chair, in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard University published the first ever study documenting the association between excess weight and diabetes.
Willett and colleagues found even a few extra pounds increases diabetes risk, particularly if diabetes runs in the family. The good news is keeping a healthy weight — a body mass index (BMI) less than 25 — reduces your diabetes risk by 90 percent.
2- Carrying around extra pounds puts you at a higher risk for low back pain, joint pain and muscle strain. Extra weight pulls the pelvis forward, strains the low back and creates low back pain, which can lead to sciatica, pinched nerves, and herniated discs.
3- Depression and weight gain are interlinked, according to Belinda L. Needham, assistant professor of sociology at University of Alabama at Birmingham. Needham says young people who are depressed tend to stop exercising and start eating more.
Young people with depression gained weight more rapidly over a 15-year period and accrued more belly fat than those who appeared to be happier. Add to that, highly depressed people tend to gravitate to antidepressants that can cause weight gain as well, according to Needham's study published in The Journal of Public Health.
A review of studies as early as 1981 concluded that regular exercise not only helps maintain a health weight, it improves mood in people with mild to moderate depression. Exercise also may play a supporting role in treating severe depression.
4- Excess weight can lead to fertility trouble in adult men. Dr. Jorge Chavarro, an associate Epidemiologist at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital found men who lug around extra weight produce lower numbers of sperm — for some, no sperm at all — as compared to their normal-weight peers, making it more difficult for overweight men to conceive.
5- Losing weight is perhaps the single most effective way to reduce obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) symptoms and associated disorders, according to a Finnish study published in the peer-review journal, American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Patients with sleep apnea severe enough to “disturb or waken their bedfellows” who lost on average 20 pounds saw “markedly lower OSA symptoms, and those who lost 33 pounds or more saw OSA symptoms “totally vanish,” the study said.
6- Researchers at the University of Illinois in Chicago found men with clinically localized prostate cancer who carry even a few pounds of extra body weight increased their risk for a cancer recurrence as much as eight times that of contemporaries with normal BMIs.
7- Bedeviled by foot pain? A recent study of people who lost an average of 90 pounds found serious tootsie relief. Post-weight loss, patients’ complaints about foot pain dropped a whopping 83 percent.
8- Poor eating habits not only lead to weight gain, they can affect your skin too. “While there’s no mistaking how our diet affects our overall health, we’re just beginning to understand how certain foods – or lack thereof – can impact our skin’s health,” says Susan C. Taylor, a dermatologist in New York City.
“In addition, studies show that some food and beverages, such as those high in carbohydrates and sugar, can even worsen common skin conditions and cause allergic reactions that manifest on the skin.” She says the simplest way to maintain healthy, glowing skin is to eat a balance diet high in fruits, vegetables and whole grains and low-fat or fat-free meats.
Lynette Summerill is an award-winning writer and Scuba enthusiast living in San Diego, CA with her husband and two beach loving dogs. In addition to writing about cancer-related issues for EmpowHER, her work has been seen in newspapers and magazines around the world.
Sources and consumer information:
Harvard University School of Public Health Nutrition Source Update. April 2012 Online at:
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/index.html
American Obesity Association. “Health effects of obesity.” AOA Fact Sheets. 2002. More information online at SpineUniverse: http://www.spineuniverse.com/conditions/back-pain/back-pain-obesity
Belinda L. Needham, Elissa S. Epel, Nancy E. Adler, and Catarina Kiefe. Trajectories of Change in Obesity and Symptoms of Depression: The CARDIA Study. American Journal of Public Health: June 2010, Vol. 100, No. 6, pp. 1040-1046. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2009.172809 online at : http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.2009.172809
Harvard Health Publications. Exercise and Depression. Access excerpt online at:
http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/Exercise-and-Depression-report-excerpt.htm
Obesity and Increased Risk for Oligozoospermia and Azoospermia. Nathalie Sermondade, MD, MSc; Céline Faure, PhD; Léopold Fezeu, MD, PhD; Rachel Lévy, MD, PhD; Sébastien Czernichow, MD, PhD; and the Obesity-Fertility Collaborative Group. Arch Intern Med. 2012;172(5):440-442, doi:10.1001/archinternmed.2011.1382. Abstract online at:
http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/extract/172/5/440
Losing weigh can cure obstructive sleep apnea in overweight patients. American Thoracic Society. Keely Savoie. 9 Feb. 2009. Accessed online at:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-02/ats-lwc020509.php
Excess body weight associated with risk for prostate cancer recurrence. American Association for Cancer Research via Eurekalert.com. Media Release Accessed April 3, 2012 at:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-04/aafc-ebw032812.php
What to eat for glowing healthy skin. Sciencedaily 9 Nov. 2007. Access online at: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071109201438.htm
Reviewed April 10, 2012
by Michele Blacksberg RN
Edited by Jody Smith