On of the major causes of physical disability is obesity. So what causes obesity? Obesity is most often defined as being 20% or more over ideal body weight. (http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/01/07/1041566411873.html). Obesity is a common condition, which can have profoundly negative health and social consequences. Obesity is considered a serious disease and has been linked to shortened life expectancy. Obesity is a condition, and morbid obesity is a disease, not a character flaw. The most important cause of obesity is a person's genetics. It is the one thing relative to obesity that a person can do nothing about. Another important cause is a person's lifestyle. That includes eating habits and exercise patterns. The third cause, although it is not nearly important as the other two, is a person's psyche. We all eat at times other than when we are hungry. Often, psychological pressures stimulate increased intake of food (Goodstein, 1983).
There is intensive, complicated research regarding various body chemical causes or contributors to obesity, such as those produced in the brain and other organs. We will know increasingly more about these in the near future. .
Because genetics play a very important part in the cause of obesity, a person who has genetic obesity should avoid feeling guilty. The genetics cause a biologic need for the obesity. The only way it can be avoided is by choosing a healthy lifestyle.(Goodstein, 1983). Adults who are obese are more likely to become disabled later in life - even if they ultimately manage to take off the weight, researchers report. "People who were obese and lost weight were still at a higher risk of disability than those who were never obese,"(Goodstein, 1983).While obesity is known to be associated with health ailments - from heart disease to diabetes, the researchers were interested in examining whether being obese also carries an independent risk of causing a loss of functioning on everyday tasks.
