For many people, losing weight and being healthier are two important goals in their life. Some may just want to lose a few pounds to fit into a new outfit or drop some winter weight when the weather warms. However, losing weight and maintaining a normal Body Mass Index (BMI) can reduce the risk of getting a number of chronic health problems and help you control existing health issues.
The BMI is a system that helps to determine a healthy range of weights for people, based on their height, weight, and body measurements. The team at Balance Wellspace Integrative Medicine has a medical weight loss program that will help you through the process safely and effectively. Losing weight can reduce the risk for a variety of conditions, including the following:
Asthma and Sleep Apnea
Asthma rates tend to be higher in people who are obese than their counterparts who are not. Although there are other contributing factors to asthma, such as genetics and the environment, losing weight can make asthma more manageable and can reduce the likelihood of asthma contributing to sleep apnea, a disease where a person stops breathing in their sleep more than once per night. Often asthma and sleep apnea present together, as both conditions affect the lungs and the ability to breathe.
Gallstones
The gallbladder stores bile in the body. Bile plays an important role in helping to break down food in the intestines. Because the gallbladder mainly deals with absorption and digestion of fat and cholesterol, the gallbladder can become diseased or develop stones if a person maintains a diet of fatty, greasy, and high cholesterol foods.
Although anyone with a poor diet who eats a significant amount of high fat, high cholesterol foods is at a higher risk of gallstones, obesity is often an underlying factor in the gallbladder’s absorption of higher levels of cholesterol.
Depression
While obesity and its links to physical health conditions are discussed more often, weight and weight loss can have an effect on mental health as well. Obesity and depression can fuel each other. Obesity makes it more difficult to engage in an active lifestyle, which can, in turn, can lead to depression both from the inability to function normally as well as from the lack of the “feel good” endorphins released during exercise. In addition, some depression medications cause weight gain as a side effect. It can be a vicious cycle.
Stress
Stress can lead to a large number of chronic physical health conditions in the body, and it’s also comorbid with depression, often leading to issues such as binge eating disorder, low quality sleep, and a poor diet, all things that play a role in obesity.
The important thing to note is that nobody has to lose weight alone. For more information about how Balance Wellspace can help you lose weight and lower your risk for these and other chronic health conditions, call the practice at 540-824-1005 or contact us online today.