So more than half of women, between the ages of 20 and 44, who gave birth in the U.S. in 2019, had at least 1 cardiac risk factor, before they became pregnant.
Overweight/obesity, hypertension, and diabetes were the greatest risk factors.
It’s difficult to wrap one’s head around this, considering how women within this age group, should be near their peak, in terms of health.
My wife and I often see people walking in our neighborhood, and it’s almost always seniors.
It probably doesn’t bode well for the goal of increasing life spans, or increasing the number of years of good health.
Obesity is a disease of wealth. It is a problem around the world. Every time I go to Latin America, I see more obesity.
The US is skewed by its Negro population. These women tend to gain more weight as they age. That being said, I do not see the Black female weight gain in West Africa to the extent that I see it in the US. Again, it is to an extent a problem of wealth.
My Moochercaid patients in South Georgia used to amaze me at their junk food intake.
IMO obesity is because of laziness and lack of self control, people control what they put in their body and how much they move their body. If someone chooses to be a fat lazy POS that’s there decision.
I also stand by my statement that the word “obesity” is not really accurate.
I just went for my 6 month review at my wellness clinic.
I am 6’3 and 202 lbs and still considered “overweight”.
That may be true in a small number of obese individuals, but most people are fat because they eat way more calories than their body needs. For the majority of people if they take in the amount of calories they burn they will not become obese.
I disagree. Obesity more greatly affects those in poverty and may also be related to cultural dietary habits and genetic reasons. If you look at the stats on the following page, note the discrepancy between white and Hispanic and white and black adults.
100% agree.
I worked with addicts, who also had a large representation of lower socio-economic population.
We set up a program with Harvesters (food donation organization in the Kansas City area) to teach them about nutrition and how eating healthier is actually less expensive than what they were used to.
There are many factors that contribute to obesity.
My brothers and parents were in great shape, and I was quite overweight. But I was very active, like most kids growing up in the 60’s. No one was sitting in front of a TV, or computer all day.
The advances in technology are a 2 way sword. Sure, technology is great, but not for most people’s waist lines. 50 years ago, no one had to make a conscious decision to get exercise. Today, few people have any real need to move around, so you really must make an effort to have a physically active lifestyle.
Obviously, most people do not.
Parents need to start very early in their kid’s lives, if they’re going to instill the importance of exercise and proper eating habits. Letting computer games fill in as babysitters, is a giant disservice to future generations.
When my kids were pre-K I worked Friday - Monday.
So I spent Tuesday and Thursday at home with them (our daycare would only do a M/W/F schedule, so I had Wednesday sot myself).
I found every free or cheap activity in the KC area (we also had zoo passes) that also doubled as some form of physical activity.
We bought the zoo pass every year from when my kid was 4 until probably junior year of high school, it was well worth the cost. Before fitness watches my wife had an old school cheapo pedometer that my kid liked to see how far we walked at the zoo, on the beach, downtown, at a sporting event, etc. The same with the cheapo odometer on his bike, he knew how far the library was, the big park, the ice-cream stand, distance to his buddies a few subdivisions away, etc.
It’s up to parents to find what activities their kid likes and encourage them to be active and be healthy.
When my kid was in high school if you were in a varsity sport you could take athletic PE or a study hall and seniors could leave early. Athletic PE was the weight room, open gym or sport specific training.
I think we’re talking about 2 different things. In my kids school if you were a varsity athlete you didn’t have regular PE class, you could go to study hall or what they called Athletic PE which was either going to the weight room or sport specific training with coaches and trainers. You could also go to open gym where you could do what you wanted with other varsity students. You got class credit for PE, it didn’t matter which you did.