According to Dr Riekie Smit, a medical practitioner from Pretoria with a special interest in weight management, South Africa has alarmingly high rates of adult obesity.
More than half of the female population and over a quarter of the male population are obese, and up to 70 per cent of the female population is either overweight or obese.
She said that South Africa is also rated in the top three countries in Africa in terms of adult obesity rates, with no signs of this abating.
Even worse, our childhood obesity rates are continuing to rise.
According to Diabetes South Africa, 20 per cent of girls younger than nine years are overweight and 13.5 per cent of school-going children are overweight or obese, which is higher than the 10 per cent global rate,” she said. Obesity is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more.
Your BMI is calculated with a simple formula of your weight (kg) divided by your height (m) squared. BMI calculators are also easily accessible online.
“This should not be the only guideline used, as your waist circumference is another really important measure of your risk for health problems. “A high-risk waistline is over 80cm for women or over 94cm for men, and this indicates an increased risk for high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and other conditions,” Smit said.
Diabetes, which is one of the conditions associated with obesity, is now the largest killer’ of South African women according to Statistics SA research2. Having type 2 diabetes also increases your risk of severe illness from Covid-19.
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Adults of any age with certain underlying medical conditions are at increased risk for severe illness from the virus that causes Covid-19, including being overweight and obese.
“The main reason for this is the comorbidities associated with obesity,” explained Smit, who said that she is often surprised at how many obese patients are not aware of the other medical conditions that they already have.
“Obesity, as well as its comorbid diseases, affects one’s immunity and your body’s ability to recover from illnesses. “Obesity is associated with a depressed immune system and chronic low-grade inflammation in your body,” she said.
Researchers have established the likelihood that the presence of excess fat or adipose tissue could increase transmission of the virus between organs and could increase the viral load and drive disease severity.
“Obesity is associated with reduced cardiac and respiratory function, kidney pathology and all these and the other comorbid conditions gives rise to the poor outcome that many obese patients have when infected with Covid-19,” Smit explained.
Worse yet, obese people generally seem to respond poorly to vaccinations and antiviral treatments.
Furthermore, obesity increases your risk for numerous other health conditions, many of which can be fatal. Overall, obesity is estimated to increase the risk of dying from heart conditions by four times and doubles your risk of cancer-related death.
“For persons with severe obesity (BMI >40), life expectancy is reduced by as much as 20 years in men and five years in women,” she said.
According to Smit, this a disaster requiring urgent intervention. “Numerous scientific studies have revealed that most of the obesity-related medical conditions improve significantly with a weight loss of as little as 5 per cent to 10 per cent of your body weight.
“This should motivate anyone with health or weight problems,” she said and advised people with weight issues to educate themselves and the people close to them about how weight issues affect health.
This includes becoming educated on why maintaining a healthy weight is important, what the importance of a healthy diet is, knowing more about nutrition and portion sizes, what you should be eating and what the benefits of exercise are.
It is also important to know what assistance there is to help with losing weight, including possible weight loss programmes, medications, apps and what services are available to assist you.
“Educate yourself, write down the steps, have a goal, and then start following the steps. You will also need help and advice from those with experience,” she said. Those with obesity issues are urged to monitor their progress and that if there is no progress, to get help rather than give up.
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