All over the world, countless individuals suffer from the curse of being overweight, or much worse – obesity. Having such problems will eventually lead to other health-degenerating illnesses like heart and blood problems, respiratory problems, kidney damage, and a whole lot more. Being a nurse, I have seen this “epidemic” first hand. I have encountered patients that arrive at the emergency room half dead because of the problem of obesity. Considered to be one of the world’s major health issues, obesity is of the leading causes of death.

In the United States alone, it is estimated that it causes an excess of 111,909 to 365,000 deaths per year, but the good news is – it is preventable. That is what I have been telling my patients who are dealing with this problem over and over again. Obesity is a matter of choice, like many other decisions we have to make in our day to day lives.

All throughout my career as a nurse, I have witnessed the suffering people had to undergo because of obesity. I can name thousands of things but it will always boil down to these two which I am about to discuss. Because it is through these two effects trigger countless more thus subjecting the person to the health problems he/she faces now.

1. Physical degradation is a major effect of obesity. You don’t have to be a medical professional to tell whether or not obesity can affect the balance of health. You see as one of the many medical professionals, we believe that health is achieving full balance or equilibrium of mind and body. Everything from work, stress, love, sadness, happiness, food, etc. an imbalance of these will lead serious illnesses, one in fact, we are discussing right now.

I can name many life-threatening things obesity can give you, one of which is a condition known as Congestive Heart Failure; a condition in which the heart can’t pump enough blood to the body’s other organs. Another would be an Enlarged Heart or an increase in the size of the heart that may be caused by a thickening of the heart muscle because of increased workload; this means that your heart will have too much to do because of the fat gathered up inside your heart thus weakening it. Cor Pulmonale or otherwise known as right heart failure is a change in structure and function of the right ventricle of the heart as a result of a respiratory disorder. That and countless other illnesses are result of obesity.

Our body is like a series of lights you hang up during Christmas, when one light bulb doesn’t function, the others also stop working. When the human body experiences one or two illnesses, expect that certain repercussions will be felt in other areas or systems in the body, thus triggering other illnesses to develop and when the body reaches its limit, it ceases to function. Obesity is a time bomb, some will never feel the effects, but you can hear its “tick” when you experience the slight symptoms like high blood pressure and fatigue, you experience these until the time it explodes.

2. The collapse of self esteem is very much seen in people with obesity. People with these problems become paralyzed by fear of rejection and humiliation, thus subjecting the person’s mindset to be nothing more as useless. Poor self-image will lead to mental problems; a person will believe that because he/she is fat no one will ever make friends or converse with them. They will believe that they are useless to society. They are also prone to various criticisms in public making their self image degrade even more. No stable relationships can be formed whether it is romantic or something friendly, because of the idealism of the person that he/she will never be good enough. These problems caused by obesity to a person’s idealism of self worth are very alarming, with all the social media nowadays, having society dictate what you should and should not be is a danger to all people suffering from obesity. This will lead to countless problems in the psychological and psychiatric realm. As I have stated earlier, a balance in both mind and body must be achieved in order for us to fully call ourselves healthy individuals.

“You will always have a choice” that is what I always say to my patients who are in danger of suffering obesity. Proper diet and exercise is a must when you want to conquer obesity and regain your rightful place in society. I know people who have conquered obesity. Believe me, it is diet. But as for now, keep pondering on the words I say to all of us – We always have a choice.