How to recognize obesity in yourself Bez kategorii
Obesity is a chronic disease that involves excessive accumulation of body fat. This disease is dangerous to health and can lead to complications such as carbohydrate disorders, hypertension, atherosclerosis, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, as well as increase the risk of developing certain cancers.
How to recognize obesity in yourself? – adults
Various methods are used to diagnose overweight and obesity. There are simple and easily accessible methods that are used in medical practice, as well as more complex and expensive methods that are mainly used in scientific research.
An important role in the diagnosis of obesity is played by the doctor, to whom patients refer regardless of the reason for the consultation. These patients usually go to primary care physicians, who first measure the patient’s weight and height. In order to diagnose overweight and obesity, an assessment of the nutritional status of adults should be carried out annually.
If your doctor recognises that you are obese or overweight, he or she should inform you of the risks of being overweight and discuss how to proceed, diagnose and start treatment or refer you to a specialist treating obesity.
When screening for overweight and obesity, weight and height should be measured and BMI calculated. BMI, or body mass index, is expressed as the weight quotient in kilograms divided by the increase in metres squared. Measurements of body weight and height should be taken just before the patient’s visit to the doctor and not on the basis of the figures given by the patient.
It is important to note that obesity is a disease associated with excess body fat and not generally understood excess body weight. The latter includes both fat and non-fat body mass, i.e. muscle tissue, bone mass and extracellular and intracellular water.
Obesity is a disease that requires treatment, e.g. by a dietitian.
How to recognize obesity in yourself? – children and adolescents
Overweight and obesity are health problems that affect not only adults, but also children and adolescents. That is why it is so important to properly identify these disorders and take preventive action to prevent them from worsening in the future. To this end, the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) has been developed, which allows for uniform rules for the diagnosis of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents aged 2-18 years.
To accurately assess the composition of the body in children and adolescents, methods of measuring the content of body fat are used. One of the most commonly used methods is bioelectroimpedance, which is noninvasive for the patient, but less accurate at a BMI above 35 kg/m2. For more accurate measurement results, dual beam X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), computed tomography (CT) and rarely used magnetic resonance imaging (MR) are also used.
It is worth noting that the problem of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents concerns not only external appearance, but above all health. These disorders can lead to serious diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and even cancer. That is why it is so important to properly recognize these disorders and take preventive measures such as a healthy diet and regular physical activity.
In conclusion, recognizing overweight and obesity in children and adolescents is a key element in preventing future health problems. That is why it is so important to use uniform criteria for diagnosis and careful examination of body composition in order to diagnose and treat these disorders in a timely manner.
What tests to do towards the complications of obesity?
Screening should be performed in all overweight or obese patients for metabolic disorders and diseases associated with excess weight. The visit should include blood pressure measurements and laboratory tests, including screening for pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes, lipid disorders, kidney and liver function, and inflammatory indicators.
In addition to laboratory tests and anthropometric measurements, it is also important to monitor risk factors and perform clinical evaluation. Patients should be asked about weight changes, co-existing diseases, the degree of motivation to make lifestyle changes, and other symptoms such as erectile dysfunction in men and the regularity of menstrual cycles in women of childbearing age.
Cardiological assessment may be supplemented by exercise and echocardiography, and polysomnography should be performed in patients suspected of obstructive sleep apnea. If secondary obesity is suspected, the patient should be referred to an endocrine clinic for further diagnosis.