Obesity is causing too many health problems

Recent studies reveal some alarming findings about the condition of Missourians' health:

The Missouri Department of Health found that more than one-third of the state's population is overweight or obese, and the $1 billion spent annually for hospitalization resulting from cardiovascular disease is a result of Missourians carrying too much weight.

The percentage of obese Missourians has increased 78 percent since 1987, the department found.

A survey of the American Journal of Health Behavior found that more than half of all adults in the state are overweight.

The prevalence of overweight citizens is slightly higher among males, blacks, low-income people and those between the ages of 35 and 54, found a study by the health department's Division of Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. These groups, the study found, are major contributors to cardiovascular disease, diabetes and other chronic illnesses.

Twenty-four percent of the state's adults were diagnosed with hypertension in 1999, the Missouri Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey found.

Statistics don't always give the full story, but the fact that Missourians spend $1 billion annually for treatment of cardiovascular disease -- heart ailments and strokes -- is as indisputable as the fact that the incidence of cardiovascular disease and elevated blood pressure is significantly increased in overweight people.

Heart disease and stroke killed 174,640 Missourians from 1990 to 1997, and health department officials report that three regions -- St. Louis, Kansas City and the Bootheel -- experienced higher incidence rates of those diseases than do other areas.

It isn't coincidental that those same three areas also have a higher overall prevalence of obesity, hypertension and smoking.

Part of the answer to the deteriorating health condition of Missourians is preventative medicine, and that includes relying on doctors to take every opportunity to advise their patients on weight issues, and early detection of elevated blood pressure and high cholesterol, both of which can be controlled with medications.

But equally important, Missourians must dedicate themselves to weight control and healthy lifestyles if they want to turn these latest statistics around.