Charateristics Of Obesity

Obesity has been described as the most dangerous pandemic for the twenty-first century, by many health and social commentators. If the idea of a non-transferable and non-pathogenic ability May not the traditional definition of a pandemic, the parallels are nonetheless valid.

Obesity is linked to many of the leading causes of death in the Western world, and the rate of obesity has increased alarmingly in recent decades. Indeed, the prevalence and severity of obesity is now such that many experts fear that the current generation in May to be the first of many centuries that have a life expectancy is lower than the previous generation.

It is clear that obesity is a major problem, and health care community is working to make the detection and treatment of obesity a public health priority.

While obesity can be caused by an underlying physical, such as obesity or diabetes, obesity, other diseases, the most common cause is a poorly controlled diet and a sedentary lifestyle. Obesity is increasing in most precipitous among young people, and obesity among children and obesity among adolescents are seen as particularly worrying.

To determine whether a person is severely obese, instead of "big boned" or fat, you must have a scientific way to measure obesity. Simply measure the weight of an individual is not sufficient since other factors such as the type and height of the impact of body weight of the individual without contributing to obesity. The most common way to get a true measure of the relative importance of obesity in an individual is using the body mass index.

The measurement of body mass index is only a relationship between the weight of the individual to his height. Although the body mass index measurements provide a standard way to measure obesity, the approach is not very sophisticated and can not take into account whether the weight is caused by muscle or fat. More complex methods of obesity, weights are often used. One of the most common second level of measurement is the measurement of body fat.

The most accurate way to measure the concentration of body fat is a measure of how much a person weighs in air and weigh it in water. Since fat is more dynamic than muscle, you can get a good measure of the proportion of muscle to fat, using this technique. However, measurement of body fat, thus requires special equipment and is not suitable for the average patient.

There are other methods, such as skin fold test and the most sophisticated measuring instruments that can be used to approximate the levels of body fat.