Obesity – A Serious Problem

Obesity is recognized by some experts as a “chronic inflammatory state”. Chronic inflammation can promote cancer development.

This is the disease of most urbanites in the developing and developed countries. In Malaysia, obesity had become a growing problem among the population. A study showed that of a total population of 26 million in 2006 in Malaysia, more than 3.8 million adults were deemed overweight in 2006 compared with 2.3 million in 1996 (The Star, 4 April 2006). This places Malaysians as the most overweight and obese people in Asia, with about 25% of the people being so (New Straits Times, 7 April 2006).

Another survey showed that 54% of adult Malaysian population is either overweight or obese compared with only 24% 10 years ago. By contrast, about 24% of men and 48% of women in Singapore are fat while only 8% of men and 13% women in France are fat (New Straits Times, 29 September 2006). In 2008, the current Health Minister, Datuk Liow Tiong Lai, confirmed that almost half of the 13 million Malaysian adults are over-weight (Lee 2008).

The problem of obesity appears to be more serious in the urban areas. A study in Subang Jaya, an urban area in Malaysia, by Universiti Malaya and the Malaysian Society of Andrology and the Study of the Ageing Male (MSASAM) showed the following results among 1,050 men above 40 (The Star, 31 August 2006).
a) 77% fall into the Body Mass Index categories of overweight, obese and morbidly obese, using Asia-Pacific criteria.
b) More than half of them have large stomachs, a waistline of more than 90 cm.
c) Almost 30% of the men were found to have diabetes and pre-diabetes meaning that one in three men has high blood glucose and is at risk of heart attack, stroke, kidney ailment and nerve and eye problem.
d) About 28% suffer from moderately–severe prostate problems.
e) 60% experience erectile dysfunction.
f) More than 80% have to take cholesterol-lowering medication.

The main cause of obesity among Malaysians is linked to unhealthy lifestyle or more specifically eating too much, especially fast food and carbonated drinks and having little or no exercise. It was pointed out that excess triglyceride fats (in obese people) correlate with high blood, cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Most obese people take medicine, food supplements and exercise to lose weight. Yet, in general obesity remains. We need to take care of our body weight as findings show that absolute body size is negatively related to longevity and life expectancy but positively related to mortality.

We should not view the problem of obesity lightly. Simply, it can cause further health complication. It is linked to other diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, lipid disorder, stroke, kidney ailments, respiratory disease, gall bladder disease, osteoarthritis, hormonal abnormalities, nerve & eye problem.