It is a staggering statistic that obesity reduces life expectancy by an average of 3 to 10 years, depending on how severe it is. During the Covid crisis people with a BMI count of between 35-40 had an increased risk of death by 40%; if the BMI count was over 40 there was an increased risk of death by 90%.
It is well-known in the NHS that obesity increases one’s risk of developing many potentially serious health conditions, including:
Type 2 Diabetes; coronary heart disease; asthma; bowel cancer; breast cancer; womb cancer; gallstones; gastro-oesophageal disease; osteoarthritis; sleep apnoea; liver disease; kidney disease
In addition, day to day obesity reduces one’s quality of life by:
Breathlessness; increased sweating; snoring; difficulty doing physical exercise; often feeling very tired; joint and back pain; low confidence and self-esteem; feeling isolated.
In 2017 a parliamentary report stated that 28.7% of adults in England and Wales are obese (15% in 1993) and an additional 35.6% are overweight.
The number of severely obese adults is forecast to double by 2035.
Despite the risks to life expectancy, isn’t it staggering that the cover of the February issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine celebrated being overweight, with photos of overweight individuals? And with a headline: ‘This is Healthy’
How can one say it’s healthy to be obese and therefore have lower life expectancy and be susceptible to all the problems described above?
Surely what we need is a government who treats this as a national crisis and vows to dramatically improve the quality of life of well over half our population who are overweight. There have been numerous reports about the causes and the possible remedies. Why on earth doesn’t our government take a lead on this and give it a top priority?
Mark Roberts 