Synonyms for morbid abound: gloomy, gloomy, sad, sad, apprehensive, joyless, moody, sinister, and hopeless. It’s no wonder people are offended when diagnosed with a condition that suggests such grisly unsanitary conditions.
However, medically speaking, the word “morbid” denotes a condition that has progressed to the level of unhealthy or diseased condition. Morbid obesity is defined as 100 pounds over ideal body weight, or at least 200% of ideal body weight.
Just as alcoholism leads to liver damage and family breakdown, morbid obesity is associated with predictable patterns of illness. While it’s true that not everyone who fits the definition will suffer from any of these, the following problems are common enough to be classified as dangers of morbid obesity:
1. Type 2 diabetes. Obesity is associated with insulin resistance, a condition that may require more insulin production than the pancreas can supply. When glucose levels exceed insulin production, it leads to diabetes, a risk factor for heart disease and a host of other chronic problems.
2. Hypertension. Just as weight loss can lower blood pressure, weight gain will increase both systolic and diastolic levels. Quite often, diabetes and hypertension are found in the same individual, multiplying the risk of cardiovascular problems, including heart attacks and strokes.
3. High cholesterol. Both high food intake and high body weight contribute to elevated cholesterol levels, a third factor in cardiovascular disease.
4. Sleep apnea and breathing difficulties. When fat accumulates in the upper body, it can contribute to airway obstruction, especially during sleep, leading to periods of decreased oxygenation and frequent awakenings. This leads to daytime sleepiness and the feeling of never getting refreshed. Also, breathing becomes more labored as the body must lift up additional tissue to allow the lungs to expand. As exercise becomes more difficult, a person often becomes less active, leading to lack of fitness and increased shortness of breath.
5. Degenerative joint and disc disease. The body is a machine, created with certain tolerances. Our knees, hips, and backs were not designed to carry an extra hundred pounds all day, year after year. Like being bumped into an overloaded truck, weight-bearing joints give way over time, leading to pain and movement problems.
6. heart disease. The heart was designed with the ability to pump blood effectively, but only within a certain capacity. As the body expands, the heart must work harder. Eventually, he can’t keep up and congestive heart failure ensues. In addition, obesity is a risk factor for the accumulation of cholesterol in the coronary arteries, which can lead to angina or myocardial infarction (heart pain or heart attack).
7. Tired. Dragging around a spare tire day after day would tire anyone out. Carrying a complete outfit seems impossible, yet many people carry that much weight and more at every moment of their lives. Not surprisingly, transporting the equivalent of a dozen bowling balls makes a person tired.
8. Edema due to venous stasis. Excess fat sometimes obstructs the circulation returning from the lower body. Just as sitting on a garden hose would limit the flow of water through the hose, compression of the large abdominal and pelvic veins by a large abdomen decreases flow through these blood vessels. It’s pretty easy for arterial blood to get to the feet, it’s downhill all the way. But the return blood flow goes uphill through the venous circulation. When venous circulation is compromised, swelling of the legs occurs. When this continues year after year, it leads to chronic scarring and darkening of stretched skin.
9. blood clots. Obesity is associated with increased inflammation, which tends to make blood stickier and therefore clot more easily. Sticky blood, in association with inactivity and slower venous blood flow, increases the risk of blood clots. Most commonly these start in the legs, then sometimes move to the heart or lungs, where they can, in fact, be fatal.
Although the list above seems bleak, gloomy, sad, gloomy, foreboding, sad, and ominous, it is far from hopeless. Weight loss can improve or reverse each of these conditions. Get started today and make a difference.
Copyright ©2010 Cynthia J. Koelker, MD
Morbid obesity. The very name suggests a sinister affliction.