The Real Costs of Obesity

The Real Costs of Obesity

Global obesity has been described as the ‘time bomb’ that threatens to have serious consequences for world health. The generally accepted definition of obesity relates to an assessment known as body mass index (BMI), which is calculated by dividing a person’s weight in kilograms by their height in meters, squared. Therefore, a person is considered to be obese if they have a BMI exceeding 30. Over 300,000 premature deaths in the U.S. are linked to obesity annually.

The rate of obesity worldwide is growing at a staggering rate in both developed and undeveloped countries. In the richest country in the world, the United States, one in every three adults are currently obese. Six in ten adult Americans are currently considered overweight. Obese men who are diagnosed with prostate cancer have more than two-and-a-half times the risk of dying from the disease as compared to men of normal weight at the time of diagnosis, according to a study by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. The findings by senior author Alan Kristal, Dr.P.H., and colleagues appear online and will be published in the March 15 print edition of the journal Cancer.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates the global total obese population to have risen from 200 million in 1995 to over 300 million in 2005. Obesity levels are generally higher for women versus men. There are exceptions such as in Canada and in Argentina. The WHO estimates that 1.1 billion people are overweight and that number is expected to rise to over 1.5 billion by 2015. Perhaps the most alarming trend is that of childhood obesity with over 160 million children of school age being obese.

The costs of the growing obesity pandemic are rarely counted in human terms, in unrealized potential. However, there is a very definite economic cost. In the United States alone, it is estimated that overweight and obesity costs will exceed $120 billion (direct costs, such as, doctors and medicines, $61 billion; indirect costs, such as, lost productivity stemming from death and / or illnesses, $56 billion). The specific overweight and obesity related costs are staggering however:

. Type 2 diabetes - $98 billion . Colon cancer - $3.5 billion . Osteoarthritis - $21.2 billion . High blood pressure - $4.1 billion . Gall bladder disease - $3.4 billion . Breast cancer - $2.9 billion

Although these numbers are breathtaking and ,in many ways tragic, there is an even greater cost. That is, the cost in lost potential and in opportunity cost. What I am referring to is the cost to the spirit of the individual. The opportunity cost in terms of the loss of confidence. The opportunity cost in terms of indecisiveness, hesitation, and lost opportunity.

One of the most compelling moments ever caught on film happened on a Bill Phillips video, Body for Life. A couple had participated and the husband had won the challenge. As the music faded, as the camera pulled in tighter, he said, “I know what it feels like to be fat, I know what it feels like to be poor, I know what it feels like to be afraid.” How much of his life may have passed him by? How many opportunities? We should never lose sight of the real cost of obesity for some, the human cost.