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What Are Blood Clots and When Are They Dangerous?

What Are Blood Clots and When Are They Dangerous?

Close-up of red blood cells and germs

The ability for blood to clot is a mechanism for keeping us from bleeding to death when we receive minor injuries. People with the genetic condition hemophilia lack the substance in their blood that spurs it to clot. This can lead to death at a young age due to hemorrhage. When we first receive a cut, platelets in our blood collect at the site to form a temporary barrier. Then these platelets send out chemical signals that cause the blood’s clotting factors to replace the platelets with fibrin, which is tougher and more durable than the platelet barrier. When the bleeding is sufficiently stopped, anti-clotting proteins are then released that stop the clot from growing larger and spreading.

However, sometimes blood clots develop in an abnormal fashion or break off and travel to other parts of the body where they can cause serious medical problems, such as a stroke or heart attack. More than one in every thousand people develops a venous thrombosis (blood clot in a vein), which may prove fatal. The aging population and increased immobility due to lack of exercise and obesity have served to contribute to ever increasing rates of venous thrombosis. A study reported in the American Journal of Hematology predicts rates of venous thrombosis to more than double by 2050.

Clots are most likely to form when the flow of blood through the veins is slowed, such as when sitting in a chair for long periods of time, or when confined to bed. Those at greater risk for developing blood clots are the elderly, smokers, those who have recently had surgery to the hips or knees, pregnant women, women who use oral contraceptives or HRT, and those who are immobile due to illness, travel or surgery. Long plane flights are a well-known contributor to episodes of deep vein thrombosis (DVT), due to the extended periods of immobility imposed on passengers.

Symptoms of a clot are relatively obvious. Because a clot in a limb blocks the drainage of blood, the limb becomes swollen and reddish or purple and the skin becomes tight and shiny in appearance. If the clot is not dealt with in a speedy fashion, part of it can break off and travel through the circulatory system, where it can block a blood vessel in the lungs, causing a pulmonary embolism (PE). Symptoms of a PE include chest pain and shortness of breath, although some people do not exhibit these symptoms.

In order to help prevent blood clots, there are a few precautions you can take. If you will be traveling or immobile for long periods of time, be sure to increase your intake of water. This has been shown to help keep blood flowing. Take frequent breaks for exercise, if possible. Even if confined to a chair, you can practice some simple leg exercises such as flexes and stretches. Finally, you can invest in specially-designed compression stockings that can help to support the flow of blood through the veins.

 

Most Effective “Low Impact” Cardio Exercises

Most Effective “Low Impact” Cardio Exercises

Why “low impact” cardio exercises? Imagine reaching your “golden years” with a buff beach body only to be told that you can’t jog or run anymore because your knee cartilage has been worn thin or you have damaged vertebrae. The last thing you want to do is ruin your body while trying to stay in shape. Here we present some good low impact cardio exercises that can help you maintain a healthy cardiovascular system without causing damage to your musculoskeletal system.

Walking—This simple exercise places far less stress on the knees than jogging, running or pounding the stairs. If this sounds too boring, try changing your route. Explore different streets or roads. Also, you might take this to the next level and include hiking on trails or through the woods. Be sure to follow experts’ recommendations about hiking dos and don’ts. Add extra energy to your routine by swinging or rotating your arms to the sides. Involving your upper body as you walk can get your heart beating more vigorously.

Speed Walking—It’s impossible to do speed walking without involving the upper body. This is low-impact movement on rocket thrusters. The most efficient position is to keep your elbows bent at a 90-degree angle and be sure they remain close to your body. Be sure to stick to flat, smooth surfaces to reduce the chances of injury.

Cycling—For even less impact, take your bicycle out for a spin. If your bicycle is properly adjusted to your size, there should be no strain on your knees. You can cover far more territory, do more sightseeing and get lots of cardiovascular benefit.

Stairs—Walking up stairs is a powerful way to work your body. Don’t become impatient, though. You don’t want the walking to become jogging. That would turn your low impact routine into high impact. Make certain you softly plant each foot in turn on the next step and use the strength in your legs to push you upward.

Swimming—If you’re just starting an exercise program or returning after years of relative inactivity, swimming is an excellent low-impact exercise option. Taking to the pool can build up vast reservoirs of cardiovascular health because swimming can work the entire body, depending on the strokes you use.

Dancing—Take a dance class. Whether you’re into ballroom, tap, ballet or modern dance, you can get a low impact workout while having fun with others.

If you already suffer from thin cartilage, don’t let that stop you from exercising. One study did MRIs on 50–80 year olds, all healthy men. The results showed that more exercise led to thicker knee cartilage. The consensus was that exercise helped to repair cartilage deficiencies. Everything else being equal, the body is amazing in its ability to repair itself. And these low impact exercises can work wonders for your long-term cardiovascular health.

Remember that one of the best things you can do for your health is to also get adjusted regularly!

 

To Stay Healthy this Fall and Winter? Wash Your Hands! The Simplest Way

To Stay Healthy this Fall and Winter? Wash Your Hands! The Simplest Way

As summer turns to fall, lots of people (children and adults alike) will be spending more time inside and in closer proximity to one-another. Washing your hands is something simple we can all do to keep our schools, workplaces and homes just a little bit healthier. In fact, it’s actually been identified by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as the single most effective way to prevent the spread of communicable diseases.

But researchers at Michigan State University recently found that only about 1 person in 20 actually washes his or her hands properly in even the most obvious hand washing scenario—after using a public restroom. According to a summary by writer Lindsay Abrams of the Atlantic:

“Of 3,749 people observed leaving the bathrooms, 66.9 percent used soap, while 10.3 percent didn’t wash their hands at all. The other 23 percent of people stopped at wetting their hands, in what the researchers, for some reason, call “attempted washing” (as if maybe those people just weren’t sure how to follow through). Although the researchers generously counted the combined time spent washing, rubbing, and rinsing, only 5.3 percent of people spent 15 seconds or longer doing so, thus fulfilling the requirements of proper handwashing. They average time spent was 6 seconds.

Why Hand Washing?

Bacterial and viral infections can be spread when the hands come into contact with infectious respiratory secretions and carry them elsewhere. This happens most often as a result of someone coughing, sneezing, shaking hands, or touching an object that has been in the proximity of a sick person and then touching the face—particularly the nose, mouth or eyes. This is one of the primary ways of transmitting the virus that causes the common cold.

Washing your hands after using the toilet or changing a diaper is of utmost importance, as the ingestion of even the smallest amount of fecal matter can cause serious illness from deadly pathogens such as E. coli, salmonella, giardiasis and hepatitis A, among others. You should also be particularly careful about washing your hands after touching garbage, handling animals or animal waste, visiting or caring for an ill person, or if your hands show visible dirt.

Those who handle food should routinely wash their hands, not only after using the toilet, but also after touching raw meat, fish or poultry, since the microbes present on uncooked food can cause gastrointestinal infections ranging from mild to severe or even life-threatening.

Perhaps those with the greatest need to wash their hands on a regular basis are healthcare workers. Because they’re constantly exposed to sick patients and patients with weakened immune systems, and since they frequently come into contact with contaminated surfaces, these professionals have a special responsibility. Before the importance of hand washing was widely understood within the healthcare community, millions of people became sick or died from infections passed along on the hands of their caregivers. During the 19th century, up to 25% of women died in childbirth from childbed fever (puerperal sepsis), a disease subsequently found to be caused by the bacteria Streptococcus pyogenes. After hand washing was introduced as a standard practice in the delivery room, the rate of death dropped to less than 1%.

It All Begins With Hand Awareness

Here are the “4 Principles of Hand Awareness”:

  1. Wash your hands when they are dirty and BEFORE eating
  2. DO NOT cough into your hands
  3. DO NOT sneeze into your hands
  4. Above all, DO NOT put your fingers into your eyes, nose or mouth

How to Wash Your Hands the Right Way

To wash your hands properly, you need only two things: soap and clean, running water. If these two things are not available, you can use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that has a minimum 60% alcohol content.

Before washing your hands, remove all rings and other jewelry. Using running water, wet your hands thoroughly, then apply enough soap to work up a nice lather. Keeping your hands out of the water, rub them together, being sure to scrub both the front and backs of your hands, including your wrists, and also washing between the fingers and under the nails. Do this for 20 seconds, then rinse completely under the running water. Be sure to turn off the taps with a paper towel rather than your bare hand. According to the CDC, the whole process should take about as much time as singing “Happy Birthday” twice.

But What About Drying?

The Mayo Clinic recently published its own comprehensive review and analysis of every known hand washing-related study produced since 1970. Interestingly, their researchers found that drying hands was a key part of preventing the spread of bacteria. They also concluded that paper towels are better than blowers for this purpose. Here’s some of their reasoning:

  • Most people prefer paper towels to blowers, so they’re more likely to use them.
  • Blowers take too long, encouraging people to wipe their newly-cleaned hands on dirty pants or to skip the step altogether.
  • It takes less energy to manufacture a paper towel than it does to dry hands with a blower.
  • Blowers dry out the skin on your hands.
  • Blowers scatter bacteria three to six feet from the device.

As chiropractic physicians, we have a special interest in helping our patients (and non-patients, for that matter) avoid illness and injury. This means helping them develop healthy lifestyle habits—like regular hand washing—that prevent disease. We also work closely with them in areas like diet, exercise, sleep and stress management. If you’d like to learn more about what we can do to help you stay healthy and live your life to its fullest, please call or visit our office today!

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Techniques for Improving Circulation

Techniques for Improving Circulation

industrial-pipes-200-300A healthy circulatory system is crucial to good health. To be at its best, your body needs to be able to keep blood pumping from the heart and lungs through the arteries to your organs and extremities, and then keep pumping it back to the lungs for re-oxygenation. Anything that interferes with the proper circulation of blood puts your body’s health at risk for lots of reasons.

“Poor circulation” can mean many things. Common symptoms include having consistently cold fingers and toes, experiencing tingling in your feet and hands, feelings of numbness, tiredness and a general lack of energy, and chronically dry skin. More serious symptoms of poor circulation can include headaches, hair loss, dizzy spells, varicose veins, muscle cramps, feeling short of breath, memory lapses (due to impaired blood flow to the brain), bluish-tinted skin, and slow healing times for wounds.

What causes poor circulation?

One of the most common causes is inactivity and lack of exercise. To keep the blood moving, you need to keep your body in motion. And do it often. Poor diet and carrying excess weight can lead to poor circulation, as can diabetes and many other chronic diseases. Medically, if you have been diagnosed as hypertensive (having high blood pressure), this is almost always an indicator of poor circulation. The “high pressure” is caused by your heart having to pump harder to cause the blood to keep flowing, often because of blood vessels that have become constricted because of stress, disease, or the buildup of plaque.

How can poor circulation be treated?

Serious circulatory problems can be treated with medication. But for most people anxious to improve their circulation and thus their overall health, a few lifestyle changes can do wonders:

  • Get more exercise. Walk rather than ride. Take the stairs rather than the elevator. Go for walks after lunch and go to the gym after work. Your body functions best with a minimum of 30 minutes exercise per day.
  • Stretch more. Not just before exercising, but at your desk at work. Stretching helps to relieve stress, and stress is one of the things that can constrict your blood vessels.
  • Get massages. Massage improves circulation by stimulating the soft tissues of your body and encouraging blood flow.
  • Put your feet up. After you exercise, elevating your legs can really help you not only to relax, but increase your circulation. It also reduces your risk of developing varicose veins.
  • Eat healthier foods. Try to eat more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, healthy fats (from fish, olive oil, and nuts), and lean meats. Try to avoid processed foods.
  • Drink more water, and less caffeine. When you’re thirsty, drink water instead of coffee or black tea or soft drinks. Try to cut down on or avoid alcohol, because it definitely impedes circulation.
  • Don’t smoke, or quit smoking if you do. Nicotine and the pulmonary perils of smoking are among the most common causes of poor circulation.
  • De–stress, however you can. Stress has an extremely negative effect on your circulation. So try to find healthy outlets for the stresses you encounter at work and in other areas of your life, to release the stress rather than have it build up and become toxic.
  • Consider herbs and supplements that can help. Ginger, hawthorn berry, cayenne, motherwort, garlic, ginkgo biloba and vitamins C and E all can help to improve your circulation.

If any of the symptoms become chronic, see your doctor or chiropractor. Don’t try to “tough it out” and live with the discomfort of consistent symptoms of poor circulation. Some of the causes can be very serious indeed, so see an expert to make sure.

 

Exercise as Medicine: Spotlight on Walking

Exercise as Medicine: Spotlight on Walking

Family walking a dirtroadDo you want to become healthier and stay healthy longer? Take a walk. That is the message of two important new studies.

In the first, from Tel Aviv University in Israel, researchers found that a simple aerobic program based on walking was as effective in alleviating lower back pain as muscle-strengthening programs that required specialized rehabilitation equipment. The researchers recruited 52 patients with chronic lower back pain, and assigned half of them to complete a six-week, clinic-based muscle-strengthening program, exercising under supervision two to three times a week. The other half of the patients spent the six weeks of the study walking for 20-40 minutes two to three times a week.

According to study leader Dr. Michal Katz-Leurer, in research published in the journal Circulation, the walking program was “as effective as treatment that could have been received in the clinic.” He explained that when people walk, their abdominal and back muscles are forced to work in a similar way as when they complete rehabilitation exercises targeting those areas. And unlike rehabilitation, which requires specialized equipment and expert supervision, walking is an activity that can be performed alone, and easily fit into a person’s schedule.

In the second study, researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston analyzed data collected on the activity and sitting habits of 36,000 older men, over a period of 24 years. The researchers determined how much time the men spent sitting, performing other activities, and walking, and whether they walked at an easy, average, or brisk pace. What they found was that even a little walking each week significantly lowered the risk of hip fractures in men over 50.

Over the period of the study, which was published in in the American Journal of Public Health,  546 hip fractures occurred, 85% of which were from “low trauma” events such as slipping, tripping, or falling from a chair. The study data indicates that the more the men walked, and the more vigorously they walked, the lower their risk of hip fracture was as they aged. Walking over four hours per week was identified as the point at which the most significant benefits occurred, providing a 43% lower hip fracture risk than in men who walked only one hour a week.

Study author Diane Feskanich says about her findings, “It’s well known that physical activity helps to prevent hip fractures, that it helps to build bone and muscle tone. It can help with balance, too. One thing we’re pointing out here is that it doesn’t necessarily have to be strenuous activity. A lot of studies have focused on the benefits of strenuous activity, but we found walking alone helped to prevent hip fractures, and when you come down to it, older people are often more comfortable with walking.”

 

Natural Approaches to Lowering Blood Pressure

Natural Approaches to Lowering Blood Pressure

blood-pressure-auto-cuff
blood-pressure-auto-cuff

High blood pressure (hypertension) often has no visible symptoms, especially early on. The only way to determine your blood pressure is to have it measured. If you have high blood pressure, lowering it is vitally important to your long-term health and to reducing your risk of cardiovascular disease.

Risk factors for high blood pressure include the following:

  • Being Overweight—If you are overweight, this will put extra pressure on your artery walls
  • Inactivity—If you don’t exercise, you increase your risk of high blood pressure
  • Stress—Increased and prolonged stress can raise blood pressure
  • Alcohol consumption—Overdoing the drinking of alcoholic beverages can increase the risk
  • Potassium—If your potassium level is too low, cells tend to compensate with more sodium, which places you at greater risk
  • Sodium—Too much sodium in your diet leads to fluid retention and higher blood pressure
  • Age—As you get older, your risk increases
  • Genetics—Some families have greater risk of high blood pressure than others
  • Sugar—Excessive sugar intake, especially refined sugar, can lead to diabetes, which is frequently associated with high blood pressure
  • Inflammation – inflammation can be blamed for a whole host of health complaints and should probably be the first issue addressed. All of the risk factors listed above can be related to or be affected by inflammation. Eating a diet which contains REAL foods and that includes lots of fruits and vegetables is key in helping to reduce inflammation in the body!

While you cannot influence some of these factors (such as genetic disposition and aging), it is possible to manage most of the items on this list.

Exercise is one very effective way to reduce high blood pressure. First of all, it increases your general level of activity. Second, it tends to lower your weight. And third, it helps to reduce stress because of the release of endorphins. Yoga and biofeedback have also been found to be beneficial in reducing stress.

When it comes to diet and blood pressure, bananas can be a useful addition. Bananas are a rich source of potassium and can help normalize the potassium-sodium balance in your cells. Limiting the sodium content of your food is also important. Eliminate refined sugar from your diet. Relying on fruit and natural 100% fruit juices to sweeten your diet can be one of the best things you can do.

Alcohol, like most everything else, should be taken in moderation. If you have too much stress in your life, realize that alcohol is a depressant and cannot help in the long run. Exercise is a much better stress reliever.

A few herbs are believed to contribute to high blood pressure risk:

  • Asian Ginseng
  • Licorice
  • Rosemary essential oil
  • Ephedra

Calcium and magnesium have been found to improve blood pressure. In particular, they’re associated with improving nerve action, calming nervous tension and reducing jitters.

These substances also help reducing high blood pressure or its risk:

  • Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10)
  • Garlic (may interfere with other medications, so check with your doctor)
  • Hawthorn (a natural herb with no known interactions with medications)
  • Fish oil
  • Folic acid
  • Cayenne pepper

If you have high blood pressure, be sure to consult with your doctor before following any of the above suggestions. But rest assured that there are natural ways for you to manage your blood pressure without resorting to drugs.

 

Fitness Around the World

Fitness Around the World

women doing fist pushups
women doing fist pushups

People in the US who are interested in staying in shape tend to favor running or working out at the gym to maintain fitness. But how do people in other parts of the world stay fit? And what might Americans learn from them? Following is a summary of how people in some other countries keep in shape.

The Netherlands and Scandinavia – The number one form of physical exercise in these countries is undoubtedly the bicycle. They use it to do everything from getting to and from work and school to shopping for groceries and cycling someone home from a date. There are dedicated bike lanes in every city, and many that stretch from one side of the country to the other. From small children to the elderly, everyone cycles as a matter of course, and their overall fitness shows how beneficial it is to their health.

China – You may have seen people in public parks around any major city (or any community with Chinese immigrants) performing a series slow, precise movements. Tai Chi is an ancient Chinese form of martial arts that is good for conditioning not only the body, but the mind as well. It is especially good for seniors, as it improves balance and overall mobility, increases strength in the legs and reduces stress.

India – Most people are surprised to learn that the physical practice of yoga as we know it is not actually ancient. Yoga in India was traditionally a mental and spiritual practice that incorporated special breathing techniques while in a sitting or standing posture. The type of exercise that comes to mind when we think of the word “yoga” (incorporating different postures called asanas, in combination with measured breathing) was not developed in India until the early 20th century. Nevertheless, yoga is now practiced very widely in India and all over the world as a way to promote overall mind-body fitness. It strengthens and stretches the muscles, increases flexibility and reduces stress.

Japan ­– Radio Taiso is a program of simple calisthenics set to music that is broadcast several times a day and is used by schools and many companies to help keep people fit. There are three official versions. One is a general fitness program for people of all ages, one is specifically designed to increase physical strength, and one is geared toward the elderly and disabled, who can perform the exercises while sitting down.

Brazil – An energetic form of dance that is taking off elsewhere in the world as well, Capoeira is a combination of dance, martial arts, acrobatics and music. It improves balance, coordination and rhythm while strengthening all the muscle groups. It will also improve your reflexes and help increase concentration.

Middle East – Belly dancing was originally developed as an exercise to aid women in childbirth. But belly dancing has many additional advantages. It particularly targets the “core” muscles, which are the ones responsible for keeping us upright and which have all too often become weakened by sitting for long hours at a desk. By strengthening your core muscles, you reduce your risk of suffering a back injury or chronic lower back pain.

Natural Approaches to Lowering Blood Pressure

Natural Approaches to Lowering Blood Pressure

????????????????????????High blood pressure (hypertension) often has no visible symptoms, especially early on. The only way to determine your blood pressure is to have it measured. If you have high blood pressure, lowering it is vitally important to your long-term health and to reducing your risk of cardiovascular disease. Risk factors for high blood pressure include the following:

  • Being Overweight—If you are overweight, this will put extra pressure on your artery walls
  • Inactivity—If you don’t exercise, you increase your risk of high blood pressure
  • Stress—Increased and prolonged stress can raise blood pressure
  • Alcohol consumption—Overdoing the drinking of alcoholic beverages can increase the risk
  • Potassium—If your potassium level is too low, cells tend to compensate with more sodium, which places you at greater risk
  • Sodium—Too muchrefined sodium in your diet leads to fluid retention and higher blood pressure. Be sure to use good natural, unrefined salts.
  • Age—As you get older, your risk increases
  • Genetics—Some families have greater risk of high blood pressure than others
  • Sugar—Excessive sugar intake, especially refined sugar, can lead to diabetes, which is frequently associated with high blood pressure
  • Inflammation – inflammation can be blamed for a whole host of health complaints and should probably be the first issue addressed. All of the risk factors listed above can be related to or be affected by inflammation. Eating a diet which contains REAL foods  and that includes lots of fruits and vegetables is key in helping to reduce inflammation in the body!

While you cannot influence some of these factors (such as genetic disposition and aging), it is possible to manage most of the items on this list. Exercise is one very effective way to reduce high blood pressure. First of all, it increases your general level of activity. Second, it tends to lower your weight. And third, it helps to reduce stress because of the release of endorphins. Yoga and biofeedback have also been found to be beneficial in reducing stress. When it comes to diet and blood pressure, bananas can be a useful addition. Bananas are a rich source of potassium and can help normalize the potassium-sodium balance in your cells. Limiting the sodium content of your food is also important. Eliminate refined sugar from your diet. Relying on fruit and natural 100% fruit juices to sweeten your diet can be one of the best things you can do. Alcohol, like most everything else, should be taken in moderation. If you have too much stress in your life, realize that alcohol is a depressant and cannot help in the long run. Exercise is a much better stress reliever. A few herbs are believed to contribute to high blood pressure risk:

  • Asian Ginseng
  • Licorice
  • Rosemary essential oil
  • Ephedra

Calcium and magnesium have been found to improve blood pressure. In particular, they’re associated with improving nerve action, calming nervous tension and reducing jitters. These substances also help reducing high blood pressure or its risk:

  • Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10)
  • Garlic (may interfere with other medications, so check with your doctor)
  • Hawthorn (a natural herb with no known interactions with medications)
  • Fish oil
  • Folic acid

If you have high blood pressure, be sure to consult with your doctor before following any of the above suggestions. But rest assured that there are natural ways for you to manage your blood pressure without resorting to drugs.

Better Workouts in Less Time

Better Workouts in Less Time

Woman Lifting Weights in GymAlmost everyone is pressed for time these days, and squeezing a workout into your day is often not easy to do. However, it is possible to learn some ways of exercising more efficiently so you get a better workout in less time. Following are a few tips on getting the most out of your workouts.

Exercise both your upper and lower body at the same time – This allows you to not only save time, but also burn more calories. Use hand-held weights and pump your arms hard while running and walking, or use a rowing machine that causes you to give both upper and lower body a good workout.

Do high-intensity interval training – Researchers at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, found that shorter but more intense workouts were far more effective than longer workouts of lower intensity. Professor Martin Gibala was the lead author of a two-week study that analyzed the workouts of healthy middle-aged men who performed six sessions of high-intensity interval training for 20 minutes each. Each session consisted of 10 intervals at 90 percent intensity lasting one minute each, with a minute of rest between each interval. The results matched or were better than those from participants who practiced traditional aerobic exercise for longer lengths of time.

Gibala says, “The participants showed dramatic improvement in their exercise capacity. Before, maybe they could ride a bike pretty intensely for 25 minutes. After those two weeks, they could ride it for 50 minutes.” Some exercises that lend themselves well to this type of training are the elliptical machine, rowing machine, bicycling and sprinting. Do one minute of intense exercise at 90 percent of your capacity for one minute, then rest for one minute. Repeat this sequence ten times for a 20-minute workout and you’re done!

Vary your workouts – Studies have shown that the body becomes more efficient at a particular type of exercise if it is done repeatedly, so if you want to burn more calories, vary the exercises you do. Physical trainer Dino Novak says, “When the body is doing a set rhythm, it expends less energy than when it’s forced into multiple movements.” He advises, “For example, instead of just going for a run, do sprints — and then stop, start, turn, twist. Add motion and movement into your activity and you’ll literally keep your body expending the maximum energy.”

 
Listen to fast music – According to the results of a study performed by scientists at the Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences, subjects who listened to fast music while working out pedaled an exercise bicycle faster and achieved a faster heart rate than when they listened to slow music. So crank up the tunes!

Obesity Facts and Figures

Obesity Facts and Figures

big-belly-200-300

Obesity is fast becoming the number one health problem in the world, contributing to an increased risk of other diseases and putting a strain on national health budgets. Following are some interesting facts and figures related to obesity:

 

* About 17% of medical costs in the US are due to obesity and its related diseases, totaling an estimated $168 billion per year.
* Obesity adds about $2,800 to a person’s medical bills annually.
* An estimated 300,000 premature deaths in the US each year are caused by obesity.
* One third of US adults are obese, indicating a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher.
* If an 18-year-old remains obese throughout their adulthood, it will cost them $550,000.
* 80% of cases of Type 2 diabetes are related to obesity. The rate of diabetes has doubled in eight states since 1995.
* 70% of heart disease is obesity-related.
* Low-income women are more likely to become obese than high-income women. Over 33% of people earning less than $15,000 annually are obese, as opposed to a 24.6% rate of obesity in those earning $50,000 or more.
* The highest rates of obesity are found among non-Hispanic African Americans (44.1%), followed by Mexican-Americans (39.3%), Hispanics (37.9%) and non-Hispanic whites (32.6%). Asians have the lowest rate of obesity at 16.7%.
* In the last 30 years childhood obesity has tripled, from 6.5% in children aged 6 to 11 years to 19.6% today. The obesity rate in teenagers aged 12 to 19 years has increased from 5% to 18.1%.
* Of children who are overweight at age 10-15, 80% will be obese as adults.
* As a percentage of the population, the US has the highest number of obese people (33.9%), followed by Mexico (24%), the UK (23%), Slovakia (22.4) and Greece (22%).
* College graduates have an obesity rate of 20.8%, which is lower than the 29.5% rate of those who have only graduated high school.
* Obesity begins to decline after age 60. The population of those over age 69 has an obesity rate of 20.5%.
* The rate of obesity is increasing in the US. In 2007 only one state had an overall obesity rate of over 30%. In 2011, 12 states had a greater than 30% obesity rate.
* 40% of obese Americans aged 50 to 84 have osteoarthritis of the knee, caused by the wear and tear to the joints from excess weight stress. One extra pound of weight is equivalent to four pounds of stress on the knee.

Good health is a combination of many factors including your nutrition, preventative care, appropriate corrective care and the small choices you make every day in the course of living.

If you are overweight and would like to lose weight and/or learn more about how to eat for health and weight maintenance we can help! Our doctor supervised diet helps you safely lose weight while maintaining muscle mass. As a bonus, with the help of our weight loss coaches, you will learn nutritional and lifestyle skills that will serve you well for a lifetime! For more information, call our office at 406-652-3553 or go to www.healthyhabitsbillings.com.

If you have questions about this article, your general or spinal health, please ask. We are here to help!