Obesity and Diet Assignment Paper
A predominant theme in research and practice today is obesity, which is increasing at an alarming rate worldwide in all ages. As a future nurse practitioner: How would you approach or discuss the topic of obesity and diet with your adult or geriatric patients? What are the possible health consequences of obesity and what factors need to be taken into consideration when treating the obese patient who also has multiple comorbidities (e.g., hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol)?Obesity and Diet Assignment Paper
Obesity
Obesity is a medical disease involving excessive body fats in the body. The high amount of body fats in the body caused by obesity put the patient at a risk of lifestyle disease including high blood pressure, heart diseases, some cancers and diabetes (Hales, Carroll & Ogden, 2020). In addition, obesity is highly stigmatized in the modern world to both men and women. The society blames the obese patients for inactivity and overeating thus facing them with barriers to getting optimal care.
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Obesity and Diet with Adult or Geriatric Patients
Globally, the prevalence of obesity is on the rise across all age groups but the proportion of adults suffering from obese has doubled. The increase in body fat mass in older adults is the imbalance between energy expenditure and intake (Maukonen, Männistö, Tolonen, 2018). In addition, aging decreases the growth of secretion hormones, serum testosterone as well as responsiveness to thyroid hormone. Obesity in adults is also caused by social, genetic and environmental factors.
The health problems associated with obesity in geriatric patients are either life threatening or nonfatal (Pozza, & Isidori, 2018). The most common life threatening conditions caused by obesity are gallbladder disease, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension and some cancers. The nonfatal disease on the other hand include osteoarthritis and arthritis, respiratory problems, skin problems and chronic musculoskeletal. Obesity and Diet Assignment Paper
Factors to Consider when Treating Obese Patients
Obese patients with multiple comorbidities like high cholesterol, hypertension and diabetes should be put on both pharmacological and lifestyle therapy (Inoue, Poti, & Gordon-Larsen, 2018). Pharmacological therapy involves introduction of calcium channel blockers, beta blockers, diuretics, angiotensin receptor blockers and ace inhibitors. Lifestyle therapy on the other hand includes alcohol restriction, improving physical activity, smoking cessation, sodium restriction and maintaining a healthy BMI (Theorell-Haglöw & Lindberg, 2016). Lastly, obese patients with multiple comorbidities should be administered a combination therapy to attain a blood pressure of less than 130/80 mm Hg.
References
Hales, C. M., Carroll, M. D., & Ogden, C. L. (2020). Prevalence of obesity and severe obesity among adults: United States, 2017–2018.
Inoue, Y., Qin, B., Poti, J., & Gordon-Larsen, P. (2018). Epidemiology of obesity in adults: latest trends. Current obesity reports, 7(4), 276-288.
Maukonen, M., Männistö, S., & Tolonen, H. (2018). A comparison of measured versus self- reported anthropometrics for assessing obesity in adults: a literature review. Scandinavian journal of public health, 46(5), 565-579.
Pozza, C., & Isidori, A. M. (2018). What’s behind the obesity epidemic. In Imaging in bariatric surgery (pp. 1-8). Springer, Cham.
Theorell-Haglöw, J., & Lindberg, E. (2016). Sleep duration and obesity in adults: what are the connections?. Current obesity reports, 5(3), 333-343.Obesity and Diet Assignment Paper