What you need to know about obesity and overweight and how they can be managed:

Last October 23 at the Roma Salon of Manila Hotel, I had the chance to update my knowledge, as a nurse and as a mommy blogger, regarding obesity and overweight and their relation to other diseases and how we can manage them. Sponsored by Herbalife, a global nutrition company, the seminar runned for 3 culminating hours on  health promotion that will help the attendees improve their life and their family's well-being. 

Aside from co-health and mommy bloggers which I got to meet after the event, most of the participants were health professionals from different sectors (eg doctors, nurses, nutritionists, dieticians). 

Before the insights I got from the seminar, I would want to provide you the following terms and their definition for references as these will be used repetitively in this post. 

OBESITY versus OVERWEIGHT

Though both terms generally imply excess weight, being overweight means having a body weight more than the considered normal and healthy individual weight based on certain certain standards like age or body build. While on the other hand, obesity specifically refers to that excess amount of body fat. 

Technically,  if a person is overweight he would have excess weight but it doesn't necessarily indicate he carries excess body fat (obese). 

OBESITY THROUGHOUT THE LIFE CYCLE:
The Case of the Philippines

DR. RODOLFO F. FLORENTINO Chairman - President, Nutrition Foundation of the Philippines Vice President, Philippine Association for the Study of Overweight and Obesity (PASOO)

Here's the summary of what Dr. Rodolfo F. Florentino had shared to us regarding the prevalence rate of obesity and overweight here in the Philippines.

1. According to the 2013 survey, the Philippines ranked 7th place among South East Asian countries who have high rates of obesity and overweight.

2, In two decades, from 1993 to 2013, the rate of obesity and overweight both in adults and children is rapidly increasing. It may have lower increas rates compared to other countries but this could be alarming unless public health measures are instituted.

3. Overweight and Obesity Prevalence rate by Age Group and Gender:

• For children, the rate is relatively low for both gender (male and female)
• During school age particulary from 8 to 10 years old, boys have higher incidence but the rate decreases while they reach adolescents. 
• Adolescent females have higher incident rates compared to males, and this gender difference continues through adulthood. This sets us apart from other countries in the world where males generally have higher incidence rate of being obese and overweight. 
• Female adults have higher incidence rate of general obesity and also central body obesity which refers to excess fat acccumulation in the abdomen. 

4. It was discovered that in our country, the level of education as well as the family income are directly proportional to rate occurence of obesity and overweight.

•  Type 2 Diabetes

     This is a medical condition where in an individual suffers from high blood sugar due to lack of insulin (the hormone that helps in the metabolism of fats and carbohydrates in the body by sugar absorption from the blood). This is also know as adult onset diabetes (as opposed to Type I). Recent studies indicate that obesity can lead to diabetes (cases are called as diabesity). As too much accumulation of body fat in proportion to normal amount of insulin can alter the balance thereby resulting to, technically, lack of insulin that will metabolize the fats.  

• Most individuals who are diagnosed of prostate and breast cancer are also suffering from obesity due to increase internal body fats that accumulates near-around the breast or the prostate gland.