Posted on 05/22/2017 10:01:17 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A leading doctor says obesity can cut 10 years off your life, as startling figures reveal the extent of the obesity crisis’ grip on residents in Sydney’s west.
While the rate of obese and overweight Australians is slowly declining in parts of NSW, in Western Sydney rates are well up.
The Daily Telegraph reports that Wentworth Healthcare assessed residents in the Nepean Blue Mountains Region. It found that a high body mass index (BMI) contributed to 5.8 percent of deaths in the Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District (NBLHD) in 2014.
A BMI of 25 or more is considered overweight, while a BMI of 30 or more falls into the obese category.
It is understood in 2015 about 61.9 percent of adults in the NBLHD were considered overweight or obese, compared to just 52.3 percent in other NSW health districts.
Dr Kathryn Williams, of Nepean Hospital, said the average obese client she sees has a BMI of greater or equal to 40.
She said about 25 percent of children in the NBLHD are also overweight or obese.
“In some other areas of NSW there has actually been a flattening out, such as in the northern beaches,” Dr Williams told The Daily Telegraph.
As a response to the alarming revelation Penrith Council and local health groups – including the Nepean Blue Mountains Primary Health Network (NBMPHN) – have banded together to combat the region’s growing obesity crisis.
“This collaboration recognises that overcoming the inequities and barriers to good health is everybody’s business,” NBMPHN chief executive officer Lizz Reay said.
According to The Daily Telegraph the council has so far installed signs throughout its public parks, calling on residents to “get moving”.
Penrith Council general manager Alan Stoneham told the publication that a person’s ability to stay healthy depends on a number of factors including where you live, how far you travel to work and the activities you do.
Meanwhile, citing PricewaterhouseCoopers, Dr Williams believes the cost of obesity could skyrocket to $87.7 billion nationally “if it’s not treated for 10 years.”
“If you notice that your weight is going up significantly and you’re not able to reverse that, you should be seeking professional help,” she told The Daily Telegraph.
You dont need the idiotic and vastly incorrct BMI to know being grossly overweight is detrimental to your long term health.
Wow! That must explain why my overweight maternal relatives only lived into their late 80s and 90s. But then again, why did my paternal normal weight relatives pass in their late 60s?
More Lysenko science.
Whatever the actuarial facts, obesity is not allowed to be counted against one... under Obamacare.
Too many fat people vote after all.
Well said SAM!!! I’m an old timer but I still exercise daily, with the ‘chores’ around the mountains up here, plus heart cardio machine work and light weights. I feel like a million bucks. Look younger, feel younger, stay younger.....Ya gotta work for it tho. The alternative is not pleasant.
OK, so I only live to 103. Not too shabby.
Depending on BMI as a statistical tool always makes me wonder about the conclusions of any study. Kind of a garbage in garbage out thing. Although as you say obesity, lack of exercise and physical activity is an obvious health risk by both common sense and observational data.
A better measure of longevity is heart rate variability.
Both obesity and life expectancy rates have been increasing in developed nations for the last 100 years.
So dig in -- and have another beer.
There is a difference between overweight and obese.
I tried to get in before the fat defenders but you were too quick.
How anyone can defend people being obese, or even fat, is beyond me.
BMI is a joke. If I hit my target I would literally be skin and bones. That said, obesity is a health issue especially in kids.
Fat chance of that happening.
Because patients with an underactive thyroid tend to have a very low basal metabolic rate, one of the most noticeable symptoms of hypothyroidism is weight gain and difficulty losing extra weight. (Sometimes an overactive thyroid can mimic an underactive thyroid by causing weight gain, although this is less common).
My thyroid has been screwed for decades. I have to exercise 2 to 3 times as much as your average person to lose a pound. Even one week of slacking in my exercise routine which is a shear exercise in will power and mild amphetamine abuse can result in 20 - 30 pounds of weight gain in less than 10 days.
To maintain my weight I swim 3 miles per week, walk 2 - 3 miles per day and walk between 30 to 70 flights of stairs a day instead of taking the elevator.
To lose weight I have to reduce calories to below 1800 per day and increase my activity listed above, which only maintains my weight, all while being exhausted from my failed thyroid. I have to get the levels of t3 and t4 hormones in my blood stream checked every 8 weeks and adjust my medications of t3 and t4 like someone with diabetes daily.
My weight can fluctuate as much as 20 pounds in a few days. I must keep my medication at 1.7 micrograms per kilogram of body weight and adjust it as my weight fluctuates. I have literally gone form 190 lbs to 340 lbs and back down to 210 and then up again to 300 in less than 3 years. I’m now back down to 280. I’m 6’ 2”.
I just love it when people make asinine statements, pulled out of their ass, when they have no idea what the f$^k they are talking about. I’ve been to Johns Hopkins and the Mayo clinic for treatment. Until you can swim 4 miles per week, walk 14 miles per week and walk up the equivalent stairs of the empire state building per week and still gain weight ( ie walked a mile in my shoes ) you can go eff yourself.
My thyroid was killed by excessive dental x-rays and work related overexposure to radiation. I was a complete bigoted ass to others about peoples weight when I was younger and before my thyroid was destroyed. My metabolism became virtually uncontrollable and I experienced for myself that it is not always the result of over indulgence and a lack of will power. I hope you never ( I’m lying! I hope it happens to you! ) have to experience a severe health problem. I doubt you or most people would have the will power to fight it.
I range from overweight to obese and exercise a lot to try and keep it under control. I’ve been shamed in public and it has been all I could do to refrain from kicking the MFers scrawny little ass from one end of town to the other and I’m 60 years old!
I find your opinion to be prevalent amongst people very wet behind the ears. Karma is a beotch. Be careful how you judge others because it just might come back and become your problem. I was an ass to overweight people when I was young and could not comprehend how they could allow that to happen to themselves and now regret my behaviour. I know a lot of people who deserve the same fate. Don’t look behind you, time and karma are catching up fast!
We all have a cross to bare and I’ll remind you “That no one gets out of life alive.” and that even the healthiest folks can take a sudden turn for the worse and suffer a horrible departure.
It’s only the very fortunate who die of natural causes, peacefully in their sleep, surrounded by loved ones. Pray! Your days on this earth were also numbered the day you were born!
My grandfather died peacefully in his sleep surrounded by friends! They were in the car and screamed all the way down to the bottom of the cliff while he slept!
Remember! Your family and friends chose your retirement home!
Yikes! My sympathies. If you would can you share your story about the dental x-rays? I have always been suspicious about the frequency and exposure rates of them.
I am about your age and my thyroid tests are dead in the middle of the range(thankfully). Still I have to keep walking and continue to be very active to keep the pounds off.
Hat tip to you and your efforts.
Thanks for the medical history. You’re the one in ten thousand. The rest are just fat and lazy. Seriously. I see fat people everywhere I go and they all don’t have thyroid problems. I don’t hate them. I pity them. I do have some scorn for them.
I have a son who’s overweight. We’re trying to teach him how to take care of himself. Unfortunately his older brother is skinny as I was a kid and can eat whatever he wants.
I was skinny as a kid. I’m now 57 and have to watch my weight. I workout and exercise whenever I can. I make time to keep the weight off. I still can eat ice cream, though so it’s all right. It IS work.
Thanks for the medical history. You’re the one in ten thousand. The rest are just fat and lazy. Seriously. I see fat people everywhere I go and they all don’t have thyroid problems. I don’t hate them. I pity them. I do have some scorn for them.
I have a son who’s overweight. We’re trying to teach him how to take care of himself. Unfortunately his older brother is skinny as I was a kid and can eat whatever he wants.
I was skinny as a kid. I’m now 57 and have to watch my weight. I workout and exercise whenever I can. I make time to keep the weight off. I still can eat ice cream, though so it’s all right. It IS work.
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