Obesity is the Biggest Threat to being Healthy in the US
Channel: BioBalance Healthcast
Date: 2021-10-11

See all the Healthcast at https://www.biobalancehealth.com/healthcast-blog/

WHO:  4 million people dying each year as a result of being overweight or obese in 2017 according to the global burden of disease.
• In 2016 1.9 billion adults worldwide were obese.
Right before the pandemic I treated a couple from Copenhagen, Denmark.   They were delightful people who had never been to the US before.  When they were in my office, they told me that they were in the US because we could treat menopause and low T with compounded medicines which are not available in their country, which is has socialized medicine and very few choices in terms of medication and medical treatment.  We found out later that their country won’t even allow the shipping of estrogen cream or any type of hormone into their country. I have no idea what the logic is behind that policy baffled them as well. They were here for medical treatment that they could not obtain at home. They told me that they often must go to France for the treatment they need and now they were in the US seeking help with their hormone deficiency.

 Their reflections on our way of life and how they viewed our people jolted me into observing the American people and our way of life differently. While going to the grocery store for some fresh fruit they told me they were shocked by two things:  Nearly everyone was obese, and the food in the carts of these people were primarily junk food, processed food, and soda.  In their country people eat fresh fruit vegetables, and lean meat, and baked goods, and do not eat processed foods.  The people in Denmark have a very low % of obesity.  They walk everywhere in their tiny country, exercise is their entertainment like biking, walking, and hiking.  The number of obese people shocked them!  I opened my eyes and realized what an epidemic we have and 
how this is affecting our overall health.

Obesity is the new epidemic in the US.  In 2010, 30% of US citizens were obese which jumped to 42.4% in 2020. In just ten years we have increased the number of obese people by 12.4% !
Note that this number was calculated before the 2020-2021 pandemic. Worse yet, the rate of severe obesity more than doubled in 10 years and increased by an uncalculated percentage by the quarantine from Covid..

Ok, you’re thinking ……so what?  People have the right to choose to eat as much as they want and exercise as little as they choose to…..that is correct, but sadly the number of obese people affects all of us.  Obesity is one of the main factors that put people at risk for hospitalized covid patients which has affected each and every one of us, obese of not!  If you fly or sit on a bus and are normal weight, your seat is encroached upon by obese people using the space on your seat to accommodate their derriere!  The cost of health insurance goes up every year and that increase is affected by the fact that obesity leads to many other diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, depression, infections requiring hospitalization, dementia, elevated cholesterol (which triggers treatment), knee and hip replacements, and increases the risk of all infections becoming severe including viral and bacterial infections.  The advances of medicine cannot compete with the obesity epidemic when it comes to eating our way to illness.

This is the problem that you may have become immune to since you are surrounded by the problem, or you are overweight or obese and in denial. yourself.  We have become a sick society who site most of the day and drives a car everywhere…we sit and watch our children play sports, sit at pro sport, we hate even walking from the parking lot to the grocery store.

We are unable to prioritize home cooked family meals over fast food in the back seat of the car as we drive our kids from place to place.  We don’t have time to exercise because we waste time on things that make us sick.  Wake up!….having a normal weight would prevent early death and all the diseases I suggested….. but our mentality only looks toward the next day or week, requiring immediate satisfaction.

Think of this.  When I tell a patient that she or he can no longer drink 3-5, or any large corn syrup containing soft drinks a day if they want to be healthy and lose weight. Many of them cry!  The sugar is their addiction and their “friend”.  Food is meant to be the center of social gathering and familial sharing. It is food like gas you put in your car…would you pump water or soda into the tank of your car?  No? Then don’t pump it into yourself and your kids….we are killing ourselves…but worse yet we are setting ourselves and our children up to die a painful slow miserable death from avoidable diseases that start with obesity.