Obesity Crisis in Wolverhampton: How to Achieve Ideal Weight - Essay Sample

Introduction

Health is more than healthcare. It is about the lifestyles we engage in and the effect it has on our health. When a person is above average weight, they are considered to be obese. The ideal weight takes into consideration the height, gender, and build of an individual. In Wolverhampton, however, obesity has become a health crisis from adults to children. According to (Wolverhampton 2014), approximately 70% of adults are classified as either overweight or obese. 41% being overweight, while 28.5% are obese. That is one in every four adults is prevalent to obesity.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

It is a course of concern as the level of inactivity is on the rise. A survey by the Health Survey of England (NHS Digital, 2012) discovered that a lower number engage in sports and recreational activities more than three times a week. 16% of men and 8% of women participated more than five times. The new norm is being overweight in Wolverhampton with six men and five women out of ten being overweight or obese.

Obesity is often caused by a large intake of calories, especially fats and sugars, which does not burn out quickly; thus, it is stored as fats in the body. A measure of Body Mass Index (BMI) is the diagnostic test for obesity (Alasmari et al., 2017). The standard BMI is 25. Thus any person who is 29.9 is overweight, and BMI 30 is obese while having a BMI above 40 is considered morbid obesity. Obesity plays a significant role in some of the chronic illnesses such as heart diseases and diabetes. According to Roberts (2019), it is a primary preventable reason for cancer in the U.K with more than one in 20 cancer cases such as bowel and kidneys are as a result of excess weight more, rather than smoking tobacco.

Besides, 55% of individuals have a higher likelihood of having depression over time. Often, mental health disorders result in obesity in adults due to unhealthy lifestyles and medication. For instance, 85% of high blood pressure is conjoined with obesity with men and women between 18 years to 45, with a raised prevalence of coronary heart disease and stroke. As NHS Wolverhampton Clinical Commissioning Group (2020) Obesity affects adults such that 6% of infertility in women is caused by the same. In Wolverhampton, the cost of medication is on the rise due to obesity. In 2007, the estimated cost was PS73.8 million, while the cost of inactivity was to be PS22.5 million per year.

Unhealthy lifestyles such as lack of physical activities and high-calorie intake is the primary cause of obesity for this age-group in Wolverhampton. The ability to stop eating when hungry is more comfortable in an environment that does not promote eating habits, such as the availability of fast foods everywhere. It is, however, hard to regulate what an individual consumes as restaurants and fast foods are all over the streets (Wolverhampton, 2014). Also, the people of Wolverhampton do not have a culture of cooking at home, which will promote healthy living.

Therefore, the most effective way to combat the health issue is to advocate for more physical activities for every adult (Pray, 2015). In the research, Pray and the team observed that when individuals increased their physical activities and consumed more calories, they did not gain weight. As stated, an extra 50-60 minutes every day for approximately four months and consumed 500-700 calories would result in a negligible weight gain. Therefore, promoting more activities like walking to work will lead to a healthier society. Families, the government, organizations, and schools all have to play their significant role in this course.

References

Alasmari, H.D., Al-Shehri, A.D., Aljuaid, T.A., Alzaidi, B.A., and Alswat, K.A., 2017. Relationship between body mass index and obesity awareness in school students. Journalof clinical medicine research, 9(6), p.520. doi: 10.14740/jocmr2987w

NHS Wolverhampton Clinical Commissioning Group (2020) Call to combat obesity in Wolverhampton, Call to combat obesity in Wolverhampton (Online) https://wolverhamptonccg.nhs.uk/about-us/news/1013-call-to-combat-obesity-in-Wolverhampton [Accessed on 4 May 2020]

NHS Digital (2012) Health Survey for England, NHS Digital (Online) https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/health-survey-for-england/health-survey-for-england-2012 [Accessed on 4 May 2020]

Pray, L. ed., 2015. Physical Activity: Moving Toward Obesity Solutions: Workshop Summary. National Academies Press. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK333469/

Roberts, M. (2019). Obesity 'causes more cases of some cancers than smoking, BBC News (Online). https://www.bbc.com/news/health-48826850 [Accessed on 4 May 2020]

UKActive (2014). Turning the Tide of Inactivity, Turn the tide, (Online). http://researchinstitute.ukactive.com/downloads/managed/Turning_the_tide_of_inactivity.pdf [Accessed on 4th May, 2020]

Wolverhampton (2014) Weight? We can't wait. A call to action to tackle obesity in Wolverhampton, The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (Online) https://www.royalwolverhampton.nhs.uk/EasySiteWeb/GatewayLink.aspx?alId=4260 [Accessed on 4 May 2020]