Obesity In The United States

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Obesity is defined as having an excessive amount of body fat (Mayo Clinic staff par 1). United States citizens are known to have excessive amounts of body fat; 20% can be labeled as obese (Obesity Statistics & More par. 2). Heart disease, sleep apnea, infertility in woman, and type 2 diabetes are some effects of obesity on the body.
Heart disease is is a huge risk factor of obesity. A lifetime spent being obese could be a predictor for coronary artery calcification, a major risk factor for heart disease, according to a new study (Woodruff par 1). Researchers from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute found that the rate of coronary artery calcification is higher among people who have been obese for more than 20 years of their lives, compared with those who had never become obese (Woodruff par 2). The researchers conducted scans to see how much coronary artery calcification the participants had during follow-up tests 15, 20 and 25 years after the beginning of the study (Woodruff par 4).
The researchers also continued taking BMI and waist circumference of the participants throughout the 25-year study time span to see who would go on to become obese, and for how long (Woodruff par 4). By the end of the study, researchers found that 40.4 percent of the study participants had become obese, and 41 percent of them had become abdominally obese (Woodruff par 5). On average, people were obese for 13.3 years, and abdominally obese for 12.2 years. And 27.5 percent of all the study participants had developed coronary artery calcification (Woodruff par 5).
Sleep apnea is another major effect of obesity. An estimated 18 million Americans have sleep apnea, which is often associated with people who are overweight (Obesity & Sleep par 7...

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