How Does Obesity Lead to Adverse Health

Shirley Courson
Research in the 21st Century
Winter Quarter 2008


Introduction:

My research topic was about the adverse medical effects of obesity such as disease. What diseases are direct results of obesity? One answer to this question is Type 2 Diabetes. Type 2 Diabetes can be caused by other factors but the number one cause is obesity. What diseases are worsened as a direct result of obesity? One answer to this question is heart disease. Heart disease, like Type 2 Diabetes, can be caused and worsened by other factors but the number on factor that will worsen this condition and cause the patient to die much sooner is obesity. Obesity is a global epidemic. The epidemic of obesity is fairly recent; the number of people who are obese has nearly doubled in the last 50 years. There is a big difference between overweight and obese. Although there are health concerns for anyone who is over a healthy body weight, when you cross the line into obese they become more serious. When your Body Mass Index (BMI) is 30 or more you are obese.

Topic Analysis:

Researching this topic has not been too difficult. The reason for this is there are many organizations focusing on the issue of obesity. These organizations are working hard to get the word out about this epidemic to try and fight it. Most of these organizations are governmental and medical so it was pretty easy to find reliable and credible information.

Academic Disciplines:

• Medical Science
• Cultural Science
• Nutrition
• Biology
• Chemistry

Library of Congress Subject Headings:

• Medicine and the humanities
• Internal medicine
• Examination. Diagnosis
• Medical emergencies
• Specialties of internal medicine
• Diseases of the blood and blood-forming organs
• Diseases of the respiratory system
• Special situations and conditions

Useful Keywords and Subject Headings:

• Obesity
• Obesity and Disease
• Obesity and Illness
• Disease or Illness Caused Obesity
• Obesity Result Disease
• Type 2 Diabetes
• Hypertension
• Dyslipidemia
• Coronary Heart Disease
• Stroke
• Gallbladder Disease
• Osteoarthritis
• Sleep Apnea
• Respiratory Problems
• Cancer

Databases and Periodical Indexes:

• ProQuest: Seattle Central Community College Library Database
• HealthSource: Walla Walla Community College Library Database
• Encyclopedia Britannica Online
• Health and Wellness Resource Center

My experience with identifying subject headings and key words has taught me to keep it simple. I have also learned that a simple act like switching the search words around can make a huge difference in the results.

Best Reference Sources:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
1600 Clifton Rd.
Atlanta GA 30333
800-311-3435

This organization relates to my topic because they are constantly researching and discovering new information on the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. This includes diseases caused by and or worsened by obesity.

The Obesity Society
8630 Fenton St.
Suite 918
Silver Spring MD 20910
301-563-6526

This organization relates to my topic because they focus specifically on obesity. They are committed to fighting this epidemic.

Statistical Source:

“Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity Among Adults.” National Center for Health Statistics. 30 Jan. 2007 Center for Disease Control. 25 Feb. 2008

This statistical source relates to my topic because it is credible, up to date information for the National Center for Health Statistics.

Reference:

Carson-DeWitt, Rosalyn; Frey, Rebecca; Davidson, Tish; Longe, Jacqueline “Obesity” Health and Wellness Resource Center 2007 Seattle Central Community College Library. 8 March 2008

This article is written by doctors, which gives it credibility. The article is useful because it provides a large amount of information on the subject of obesity. The information in this article is very similar to the information in all the other articles. They all have the same information on the causes, health effects and cures for obesity. This article also discusses alternative cures for obesity and the new direction in obesity treatment. It also includes definitions for key terms, a link to a BMI calculator, and links to other credible sites, book and organizations on the subject. The intended audience is anyone wanted to learn about obesity including those in the medical field. This article is useful for my project because it backs up a lot of the information I have received from my other sources making this information more solid.

"Obesity." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 5 Feb. 2008

This article does not name the author so I do not know of his or her authority or background. This article if very useful because it defines obesity by explaining the difference between overweight and obese. Another aspect of this article is the information about all the different causes of obesity. This article also discusses health effects of obesity and the cures. The intended audience is anyone in the health field, obese people, people at risk of becoming obese, and people wanted to learn more about this issue. This article is missing something however. It is not engaging and does not input any emotion into the wording. It would be useful for research on the topic just not as interesting to read as it could be.

Best Books:

Kaufman, Francine R. "Diabesity: The Obesity –Diabetes Epidemic That Threatens America-And What We Must Do to Stop It." New York: Bantam Dell, 2005.

The author of the book is a doctor and was once the president of the American Diabetes Association. She is a professor of pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. She is the head of the Center for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism at the Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles. It appears to me that Dr. Kaufman is an authority on this subject and should be taken seriously. The book includes stories from people who suffer from diabetes including children and the author’s grandma. The book discusses the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes and how obesity relates to Type 2. It talks about living with and fighting against diabetes. The struggles and side effects of the disease are fully described. She also talks about how we got to this point in this country. I think this book will be a useful resource in my research of this topic.

Critser, Greg. "Fat Land." New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003.

The author of the book, Greg Critser, is a regular contributor to USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, and Harpers Magazine. He goes into great detail and does extensive research into the causes and effects of obesity. In this book Critser points out that 60% of Americans are overweight and the Americans are the second fattest people in the world, next to South Sea Islanders. He discusses new research being done to discover how the ingredients we are eating are causing most of this damage. Most of the processed foods in America contain the worst fats we could eat, hydrogenated, because they are cheap to use. Worse then refined white sugar is high fructose corn syrup, also being used because it is cheap. It takes far less high fructose corn syrup to get the same sweetness as sugar. Critser investigates popular diets like Atkins Diets to help the reader understand why they do not work. This book will be useful for my project because the information and statistics are written in such a way that is understandable.

Best Periodical Articles:

Nora D Volkow, Charles P O’Brien. “Issues for DSM-V: Should Obesity Be Included as a Brain Disorder?” The American Journal of Psychiatry 164.5 (2007): 708-10. Research Library Core. ProQuest Information and Learning Company. Seattle Central Community College Lib., 13 Feb. 2008

The publisher of this article is the American Journal of Psychiatry. I would consider this a credible source on my subject. This article gives information for both sides of including obesity as a brain disorder. First the article discusses how obesity has greatly increased, to 32.2% of Americans, over the past 30 years. According to this article the DSM-V considers anorexia and bulimia brain disorders but not obesity. Obesity can be just as devastating and psychologically damaging as any other brain disorder. The addiction to food consumption is comparable in some to drug addiction.

Chuter, Robyn. “An Avoidable ‘Epidemic’ Diabetes Type-2” National Health & Vegetarian Life. (2007) 26-29. Alt HealthWatch., EBSCO Host Research Databases. Walla Walla Community College Lib., 14 Feb. 2008 http://ezproxy.wwcc.edu:2063/ehost/pdf?vid=6&hid=9&sid=408c8828-bcd2-4505-897b-bfe546efae6a%40sessionmgr3

This article states that diabetes has more than doubled since 1981. The effects of diabetes, blindness, kidney disease, amputation of limbs, impotence, gangrene, stroke and heart attack, are discussed in detail. The most important information discussed it the main cause of Type-2 Diabetes and the reasons it is a preventable epidemic. Obesity is the #1 cause of Type-2 Diabetes. Where you carry your fat, around the waist is the worst, also has an effect on whether you will get Type-2 Diabetes.

“Obesity Doubles Risk of Colon Cancer in Women.” Environmental Nutrition. 30.12 (2007): 1. Alt HealthWatch., EBSCO Host Research Databases. Walla Walla Community College Lib., 14 Feb. 2008 http://ezproxy.wwcc.edu:2063/ehost/pdf?vid=4&hid=107&sid=408c8828-bcd2-4505-897b-bfe546efae6a%40sessionmgr3

According to this article women twice as likely to develop colon cancer if they are obese then if they are of a healthy weight. Obesity gives women a greater risk of colon cancer then age, smoking, and family history. The study was done at the Stony Brook University Medical Center in New York.

Best Internet Sources:

“Do You Know the Health Risks of Being Overweight?” Weight Control Information Network Dec. 2004. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 17 Feb. 2008

The website for Weight Control Information Network is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as well as the National Institutes of Health. The information provided is all about the definition, cause, health effects, and cures for obesity. The way the information is formatted is very easy to for an average person to understand. You do not have to be in the medical field to benefit from the information this site provides but it also does not imply the reader is an idiot. The site also includes a site that helps you calculate your Body Mass Index (BMI), which is used to determine if you are obese or just overweight.

Wallace, James; Schulte, William; Nakeeb, Attila; Andris, Deborah. “Health Problems Related to Severe Obesity” HealthLink Medical College of Wisconsin 12 March 2001. Medical College of Wisconsin. 17 Feb. 2008
< http://healthlink.mcw.edu/article/984434798.html>

The website for the Medical College of Wisconsin contains a large amount of medical information. This site will contribute to my pathfinder because it is accredited and trustworthy. I would not hesitate in recommending it to others reading my project. The site is created and authored by doctors and students that show authority and knowledge of the information they provide. This site also has links to find a doctor and request an appointment.

Best Non-print Source:

Seinfeld, Keith “Nutrition Labels on Restaurant Menus.” KPLU NewsRoom 02 May 2007. KPLU. 25 Feb. 2008

This is a news radio station. The purpose of this particular installment is to inform the public of the law possibly going into effect in Pierce County that will require restaurants to include nutrition information on their menus. Keith Seinfeld is a health and science reporter for KPLU. This gives him the authority to report on this subject. The installment includes both sides of the issue. Seinfeld reports on this subject in an unbiased manner. A public health manager speaks on the reasons the information on a menu would be good. Seinfeld points out that sometimes the high calorie dishes are not the ones you would expect. Some restaurants in King County have tried putting all this information on the menu and it only led to customer confusion. The solution for them has been to have separate menus. The menu with the nutrition information would be available upon request. The reason this information would be helpful to my project is because it provides one of the weapons we can use to fight obesity.

Review of My Research Process:

Some of my strategies for finding information include searching the World Wide Web (including databases and periodicals), and the college library. At first I was getting way to much information. I was getting too many websites from too many sources including websites about pet obesity. The most effective method for narrowing this information was using the Google Advance Search site. This advance search helped greatly with all of the filters available. Even after you run the search and get the results you can still run additional filters to further narrow the results.

The reason I chose this topic is because obesity is a big problem right now in not only America but in the world. This topic is very current and always evolving. Medical knowledge and understanding of obesity is growing all the time. New information and articles on the subject are popping up all over the place. It is hard to keep up with the fast pace of it all. Another factor that makes this topic easy and complicated at the same time is the variety of media reporting on it. This topic is in magazines, newspapers, websites, periodicals, books, radio and television. I have found all sorts of information on diseases caused by or worsened by obesity. Some of them I had heard of but did not know was so common, Type 2 Diabetes. And some of them I had never heard of, Dyslipidemia.

The information I have found through all my searching was pretty much what I expected to find except for the quantity. The Internet has proven to be both useful and cumbersome. Mostly it is useful because of the vast amount of information that can be found. There is plenty of information at a public or education library it is just not as easy to search through and filter. Information can be put on the Internet by anyone and from anywhere and can be updated much more quickly than publishing a book or article on paper to be put into a library. This of course is also part of the problem. The keys is to put in a lot of time and effort, do not trust every source, look for biases, and make sure you get view points from both sides.