As well as diabetes, on a global scale obesity contributes to avoidable and premature deaths from cardiovascular disease, cancer and other causes. The epidemic of obesity is only increasing worldwide, and Hennekens, who has published these findings with co-author Felicita Andreotti, MD, PhD, professor of medicine at Catholic University in Rome, Italy, notes that during the last several decades, there has been a systematic underestimation of the wellness hazards of obesity.
He says of his own country; ‘I am deeply concerned that the United States is the fattest society in the world and likely to be the fattest in the history of the world. Unfortunately, most people prefer prescription of pills to proscription of harmful lifestyles.’ He adds, ‘I am, however, optimistic that weight loss of 5% or more combined with a brisk walk for 20 or more minutes daily will significantly reduce cardiovascular and total deaths.’
It is important to begin making therapeutic lifestyle changes as early as possible, Hennekens emphasized, even in childhood. Otherwise, the morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular disease will increase over the next few decades. Your teenager’s generation is more obese and less physically active than yours was, and already have higher rates of type 2 diabetes. This means that, for the first time since 1960, their generation will be the first to have higher mortality rates than their parents. This will be mainly due to cardiovascular disease, including coronary heart disease and stroke, but obesity is a also major risk factor for several cancers, including breast and prostate cancer, and colorectal cancer in particular.
Hennekens concluded with the warning that obesity does not only put your wellness at stake: ‘The export of our diet and lifestyle, which increases rates of obesity, together with tobacco, to developing countries will result in cardiovascular disease emerging as the leading killer in the world.’