Obesity causes major harm to health

Dr. Turin Chowdhury

Obesity is defined as an overload of body fat, which frequently causes significant impairment of health status. It means that the person having excess body fat thus obesity problem is putting his or her health at risk.
   Body-mass index: The most acknowledged international standard for determining obesity is the "body-mass index (BMI)". The body mass index compares ones height with ones weight. Along with the waist size, it is used to check whether person's weight condition is within the optimal range or not. BMI is defined as one's weight in kilograms divided by the square of one's height in meters.
   For example; a person who is 1.80 meters (5 feet 11 inches) tall and weighs 90 kilos (198 pounds) will have a BMI of 27.8. This person will be considered as overweight because his BMI is above 25kg/m2. If the person would have weighted 100 kilos (220 pounds), yielding a BMI of 30.8, he would have been classified as obese because of BMI is above 30kg/m2.
   The category in which a person falls according to his or her BMI is shown in the table below:
   The part of the body where one carries body fat is as important as how much extra weight one has. Someone who carries too much fat around the middle of the body is more likely to have weight-related health problems. In women, a waist size of 35 or more inches increases the chance for disease. In men, a waist size of 40 inches or more increases risk.
   


   Causes of obesity: Our body needs to maintain a balance between consumption of food and utilisation of the energy derived from the consumed food. Consuming too much calories and not getting enough physical activity are the main causes of obesity, especially in combination. Our body stores calories that are not used up for energy as fat. When we take more calories than we burn off, we gain weight.
   How we eat, how active we are, and other issues affect how our body uses calories and whether we gain weight.
   


   Adverse effects
   The effects of obesity are actually far more than they seem to be. Obesity single handedly contributes to our ill health to great extent.
   Obesity increases the risk of various heart diseases. It is also a major risk factor for developing heart failure.
   Obesity causes damage in the blood vessels, which have specifically been associated with stiffness in the aorta, the major artery leading from the heart.
   Hypertension is the health problem most commonly associated with obesity. It is said that the greater the weight, the greater is the risk.
   Obesity is related to unhealthy cholesterol levels and other lipid levels.
   This increases the risk of type 2 diabetes. In fact, losing weight can help prevent development of diabetes.
   The extra body weight can bring strain to the bones and cause related problems.
   Overweight problem may reduce natural resistance to diseases.
   This is also responsible for gallstones, especially in females.
   This overweight problem is linked to sleep problems.
   Obesity is associated with gout and many pulmonary disorders.
   This has been associated with certain cancers, such as uterine cancers, prostate cancer, gallbladder cancer, cancer of the esophagus, colon cancer, pancreatic cancer, etc.
   Obesity increases the risk of some eye disorders, such as cataracts, maculopathy, etc.
   This can contribute to infertility in women.
   The dangerous effects of obesity on pregnancy can affect both the pregnant mother and the child.
   Obese mothers have higher risk of high blood pressure, gestational diabetes, urinary tract infections, blood clotting problem, prolonged and difficult labour, a higher risk of fetal mortality, and cesarean delivery. Infants of obese women are also at higher risk of birth defects, which affect the brain or spine.

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The Financial Aid Battle

Rayyan Kamal

On the eve of Yale sending out letters of acceptance to the qualified candidates among single choice early action applicants, Harvard has packed a mean punch: it has unveiled its new financial aid policy, and boy is it attractive.
   Parents of undergraduate students making between $120,000 to $180,000 a year will now be required to allocate 10 per cent of their income to tuition. Families earning between $60,000 and $120,000 annually will have to pay between zero and 10 per cent. Families making less than $60,000 have already been enjoying free tuition for the past three years, although there is a manageable student contribution.
   This reform will increase Harvard College's financial aid grant budget by $22 million or more than 20 per cent. President Drew Faust, saying "education is the engine that makes American democracy work," added that "We are not tinkering at the margins, we are rebuilding the engine. There is no more important commitment we could make." Indeed, this commitment will slash the cost of attending Harvard by one-third to one-half for middle-income families.
   In recent years, America's big private universities were coming under fire for neglecting middle-income families in their financial aid reforms. Though tuition for low-income families - those making less than $60,000 - is virtually free, the cost of sending their children to expensive private universities were straining middle-income families. As a result, this income bracket was underrepresented in colleges like Harvard.
   Harvard College Dean Fitzsimmons characterised this phenomenon as "the upstairs/downstairs syndrome." While rich students were gaining valuable experience from amazing but unpaid internships and research opportunities, their less well-off counterparts were forced to spend their summers earning money to help their families financially.
   As families with ambitious high school children all over America sing Harvard's praises, parents of Yale students have begun challenging the university to match or surpass Harvard's generosity. Even families making six-figure yearly incomes are suffering.
   A Yale College student responding to the Yale Daily News article about Harvard's new policy sarcastically summed up the dilemma: "My family pulls in just shy of 160k a year, which by my estimate is pretty solid. However, my parents will not be able to retire on what little money they have because of how much of their money went to pay for college. They even borrowed against the house to pay for tuition. Now I am going to have to sell out and go defend some evil corporations in order to rake in enough to pay off my loans and take care of my family. It would be nice to go save the polar bears or pay 2 grand to go on a Yale community service vacation in a third world country, but alas we do not all bleed blue."
   It looks like the Yale Corporation has also been doing some planning of its own. Several hours after Harvard announced its sweeping reforms, Yale President Richard Levin told the Yale Daily News that Yale will make a "major announcement" about financial aid policy at the start of spring semester. We're all hoping for the best.
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   Rayyan Kamal is a sophomore at Yale University.

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