Health Risks of Obesity: What Excess Weight Does to Your Body Over Time

Being overweight affects far more than your appearance or how your clothes fit. The health issues with being overweight range from type 2 diabetes and heart disease to joint deterioration and depression, conditions that are serious, progressive, and often misunderstood as personal failings rather than medical realities. If you have tried diet programs, exercise regimens, or medication without lasting results, that is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign that something deeper is driving the problem, and that it may need a medical solution.

Our board-certified surgeons at BodEvolve Bariatric have conducted more than 14,000 operations in Dallas, Richardson, Arlington and Texarkana and have not only helped patients to lose their weight but to reverse the diseases that came with them. The first step towards reclaiming your health is to know what excess weight is doing to your body.

Health Issues with Being Overweight That Go Beyond the Scale

Type 2 Diabetes

Type 2 diabetes is one of the most documented health problems that are associated with being overweight. The extra body fat (especially visceral fat that accumulates around the stomach) disrupts insulin signaling, which causes the pancreas to wear out more and more until it collapses.

The amazing thing about bariatric surgery is that it does not simply assist in managing diabetes but it can actually place it in remission. A 85 percent rate of diabetes resolution following surgery is witnessed in our patients who usually decrease or stop insulin and oral medications in a few weeks following surgery. Surgery such as the Gastric Bypass and the Duodenal Switch is especially effective in those patients whose main issue is blood sugar and in whom this is the primary goal of surgery.

High Blood Pressure and Heart Disease

When the heart is giving blood to a greater mass of the body it must work much harder. In the long run, this stress increases the blood pressure, stiffens the arterial walls, and exposes the heart to the risk of heart attack and stroke. Cardiovascular risk is compounded by high cholesterol, that often goes hand in hand with obesity, and makes the plaque accumulation in the arteries accelerate.

Even 10-15% body weight weight loss sustained can significantly decrease blood pressure. Most patients who had bariatric surgeries at BodEvolve claim to reduce or drop antihypertensive drugs after the first year of surgery – a feat that no large-scale dieting has been able to achieve.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Excess weight and sleep apnea are directly related to each other: fat deposits around the neck and throat impede the airway, leading to the intermittent disruption of breathing during the night. Regardless of the number of hours slept, patients usually wake up with a feeling of exhaustion and untreated sleep apnea is a major factor leading to heart failure and stroke.

There is a 90% reduction in sleep apnea in BodEvolve patients who have undergone weight loss surgery. Many are able to discontinue CPAP therapy entirely. When you wake up feeling tired every morning, it is not bad sleep that is causing you to be fatigued, it is the weight.

Arthritis: Joint Pain and Osteoarthritis

Each extra pound of body weight exerts about four pounds of extra strain on knee joints. To a person who has 50 extra pounds, it amounts to 200 pounds of added strain with each step. This hastens the degradation of cartilages, and results in osteoarthritis that can cause daily activities such as walking, climbing stairs, playing with your children to be truly painful.

Weight loss surgery does not repair the damage that has already occurred in the joint, it only dramatically slows the process and minimizes pain. Most patients claim that they can discontinue pain medications and resume engaging in activities that they had given up years ago.

Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD)

Any surplus calories that do not get utilized as energy are stored as fat – even within the liver. The non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is a disease that has a considerable number of obese individuals being at risk and failure to treat it may lead to cirrhosis and liver failure. It is mostly silent till damage has been progressed and it is among the most hazardous and least diagnosed health conditions being overweight.

The liver fat has been proved to be reduced significantly by weight loss surgery and in most patients NAFLD has been resolved due to the dramatic decreased excess weight.

Depression, anxiety and mental health

It is a two-way relationship between mental health and obesity. Depression and anxiety are a result of chronic pain, fatigue, social stigma, and diminished mobility. Meanwhile, emotional eating and psychological stress can form a cycle of weight gain, which is very hard to overcome using pure will power.

What many patients don’t realize is that bariatric surgery and depression are closely linked studies consistently show that patients experience significant improvements in mood and mental health following surgery, not just weight loss.

BodEvolve is a holistic care center that involves psychological support in your weight loss program. Our program is aimed at not only dealing with the physical, but also with the emotional aspect of obesity – since, to achieve a long-term change, both are needed.

Health Problems Due to Obesity: How They Progress Over Time

A broad spectrum of severe and progressive conditions can result in being overweight and will affect almost every system in the body. These long term effects are usually built up and thus are easily ignored until they become serious.

Some of the most common long-term risks include:

• Cardiovascular complications: There is higher risk of heart attacks and high blood pressure.
• Joint degeneration: Overstrain of joints resulting in osteoarthritis.
• Pulmonary problems: Sleep apnea and breathing problems.
• Shortened life expectancy: Higher risk of premature death due to obesity-related conditions

Abdominal fat build up, which leads to chronic inflammation, hormonal imbalance, and dysfunction of the metabolic processes. In the long run, this greatly contributes towards the risk of developing life threatening conditions. Uncontrolled, these conditions may deteriorate and influence the quality of life in general.

Health Issues Caused by Obesity That Affect Your Vital Organs

The onset of various chronic conditions closely associated with obesity can have far-reaching consequences in the long-term health. These conditions are frequently combined in a complex health situation, which needs medical care.

Typical obese-related diseases are:

• Heart disease: Cardiovascular risk is raised by high cholesterol and blood pressure.
• Stroke: Lack of blood to the brain because of blocked arteries.
• Some cancers: High risk of breast, colon and endometrial cancer.
• Gallbladder disease: Increased risk of having gallstones.

The health problems that are associated with obesity impact on the vital organs and systems and increase the chances of developing serious complications in the long run. Lifestyle changes or medical interventions can be used as early interventions to deal with these risks and to improve overall health outcomes.

Health Issues Related to Obesity: When Surgery Becomes the Right Answer

If any of the health issues with being overweight mentioned above ring true, then bariatric surgery might not be far off from being your solution. You could be a candidate for weight loss surgery in case you are living with one or more of the health conditions listed above and your BMI is 35 (or 30 with serious comorbidities). Our team provides all the variants of the procedures – Gastric Sleeve and SADI-S  – depending on your health profile, weight loss, and lifestyle.

These procedures work by physically reducing stomach size, if you want to understand exactly how a surgery to make the stomach smaller delivers lasting weight loss results and who qualifies, our full guide covers candidacy criteria, procedure types, and what to expect.

Not sure surgery is right for you yet? Non-surgical weight loss arlington provides a non-surgical route that has medicine support and lifestyle coaching. Our surgeons will discuss each choice with you without coercion or judgment. This article was reviewed for medical accuracy by Dr. Clayton Frenzel, MD, Triple Board-Certified Bariatric Surgeon, Fellowship-Trained in Bariatric and Cosmetic Surgery, BodEvolve Bariatric. Our four convenient locations in the DFW serve patients in Dallas, Richardson, Arlington, and Texarkana.