Surgical Serives

Center for Surgical Weight Loss

Facts about obesity

As we have been hearing on news reports, an estimated 16 percent of children and adolescents ages 6-19 years are overweight. This represents a 45 percent increase from the overweight estimates ten years ago. These results were reported in the 1998-94 and 1999-2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES), which measured heights and weights of the children and adolescents.

For the first time in human history, the number of overweight people rivals the number of underweight people, according to a new report from the Worldwatch Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based research organization.

Click on the map above to view a larger image.

Source: CDC

Now that we know some of the facts about obesity, what effect can it have on our bodies and our health?

• High blood pressure.
  
• High blood cholesterol.
  
• Diabetes mellitus.
  
• Sleep apnea syndrome.
  
• Obesity hyperventilation syndrome.
  
• Respiratory insufficiency.
  
• Reflux disease and reflux nocturnal aspiration.
  
• Asthma and bronchitis.
  
• Gallbladder disease.
  
• Stress urinary incontinence.
  
• Degenerative spine disease.
  
• Degenerative arthritis of weight-bearing joints.
  
• Psychological and emotional problems.

*Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Back to top.