June 7, 2016

(Video) Obesity on the Rise for Women, But Not Men

Healthy Dose obesity

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More than one third of U.S. adults struggle with obesity.

Now, a new study released Tuesday shows that in recent years, the obesity rate among women has risen, but has held steady for men.

Obesity epidemic

Bartolome Burguera, M.D., of Cleveland Clinic did not take part in the study, but said the results highlight the growing obesity epidemic in the U.S.

“We are winning the battle against cancer, infectious disease, other chronic conditions, they are obviously still there, but I think we are continuously improving the care,” said Dr. Burguera. “With obesity we are not accomplishing that. We are seeing that the prevalence continues to increase.”

Tracking obesity rates

The study looked at more than 5,000 adults from the most recent span of an ongoing survey.

Researchers found that the prevalence of obesity, or those with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or greater, was 35 percent among men and 40 percent among women.

The prevalence of morbid obesity, which includes those with a BMI of 40 or greater, was 5.5 percent among men and almost 10 percent among women.

Researchers said the numbers are up significantly in both instances for women since 2005, but not as much for men.

More aggressive treatment needed

Dr. Burguera said that the bottom line is that we are not seeing obesity rates decline for anyone, and more needs to be done.

“We are treating the diabetes, we are treating the hypertension, the cholesterol, the osteoarthritis however the main problem in many circumstances is being overweight and being overweight causes you to develop these complications,” said Dr. Burguera. “So, we need to work on setting up therapies that take care of the primary problem in this case and that is the obesity.”

Complete results of the study can be found in JAMA.

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