Morbid obesity is a known and proven killer.

It affects and kills those people who through one reason or another fail to look after their general health. It's a preventable disease that with a bit of common sense and perseverance can be avoided. However, those who suffer from it can expect to live 9 years less than a person not affected..

Until recently it was considered to be confined to the affluent and self-indulgent west, and although western countries are most affected, it's now started to be seen in countries that are becoming more industrialized and where the standard of living is starting to rise. However the problem doesn't just affect adults - the incidence of this disease amongst children is growing equally as fast.

So what is obesity, what are its causes, and why is morbid obesity regarded as a killer.

Obesity is an aggressive form of being overweight - that is the sufferer is well over an ideal weight level for a person's age and height. He's at a weight level that has the potential to cause severe life threatening health problems.

Obesity is caused by two main factors: firstly by eating an unhealthy diet of high calorie, high salt, high fat and processed food with an absence of fresh fruit and vegetables; secondly failing to get enough physical exercise each day.

Morbid obesity is a much more sever form of obesity that causes a multitude of health problems that can lead to death - problems such as type 2 diabetes, and heart disease and heart failure.

The growth in the incidence of obesity has exploded in recent years, especially in the last 20, leading the World Health Organization to start monitoring the incidence of the problem and how its affecting the level of health services offered in each country. Many countries are having to dramatically increase their health budgets to cope with the increasing number of sufferers.

Once regarded as being a self -imposed social problem rather than a health problem, obesity is now considered to be a disease, and a major chronic disease at that. With over 300 million people affected world wide, and an estimated 1 billion people in total being classed as over weight, obesity can truly be called an epidemic.

The US situation. This is the country most affected by this insidious disease. It's said that over 30% of the adult population are grossly over weight, with about 9 million of them suffering from morbid obesity. In the Afro-American and Spanish -speaking ethnic groups, the incidence is said to be higher than 50%.

After 50 years of a constantly rising figure, the forecast is that the incidence of the disease will increase in the years ahead.

Whilst the statistics for adults are worrying, they are more so for children as it's estimated that over 80% of obese children will have the disease when they're adults. Presently child obesity in the age range of 6 to 19 is over 15%, with the percentage of children classed as being over weight is approaching 25%.

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