Due to the rise in the obesity rate, doctors in the UK are far more likely to list it as a cause of death. In the past, health care professionals would often record heart attack or diabetes on the death certificate even when it was clear that obesity had been a contributing factor. But that has changed.
A recent report on death certificates found that the number of official obesity deaths more than doubled from 2000 to 2006. Doctors estimate that there are about one thousand obesity-related deaths each year in the UK. click here for information to find out more.
The condition is now the number one cause of preventable death in the US and a close second to cancer in the UK. According to official records, obesity is responsible for about 8 percent of deaths of men and 4 percent of deaths for women in England and Wales. But in spite of this sharp increase, many physicians believe those percentages are well wide of the mark. After all, weight has an effect on many potentially deadly conditions and disorders like diabetes, cancer, and heart disease.
Science can only do so much. People who are diagnosed with conditions like type 2 diabetes can be treated, but they will still be at an elevated risk for cancer and heart disease. Between eighty and ninety percent of people with the disease are obese and many others are simply overweight.
The only way to protect your body from these debilitating and preventable diseases is to eat right and exercise. It is extremely rare that a fit person will suffer from heart disease, cancer, or diabetes type 2 early in life.
