3 The impact of obesity on your bone health

Obesity can be characterized by a body mass index value greater than 27. Apart from heart and blood vessel disease, the effects of obesity can also spread everywhere. Obesity can also have an impact on bone health, you know. How does obesity affect bone condition? What are the forms of impact that can occur? Here comes the review.

Obesity can reduce bone density

Research shows that obesity reduces bone density and increases the risk of fractures. Basically, bones have the ability to always renew themselves. The trick is to destroy bone tissue that has been damaged with osteoclasts, and build new bone tissue with osteoblasts. If the speed of the two is balanced, your bones will always be solid and strong.

However, in obese people, usually the speed at which this bone tissue is renewed is not balanced.

Reporting from the Healthline page, the speed of building new bone tissue tends to decrease in the obese group. Meanwhile, the process of destroying bone tissue actually increased 3 times faster in the obese group. More destruction than formation results in decreasing bone density. If bone density decreases, of course the bones are more prone to injury or fracture.

How big is the impact of obesity on bones?

Osteosarcopenic obesity is a condition of worsening bone density and muscle mass as well as associated with excessive fat accumulation in the body. Generally this occurs in adults and the elderly.

According to Dr. Michael Drey, M.Sc. an expert on osteosarcopenia, from Medizinische Klinik und Polyclinik IV, at Klinikum der Universitat Munchen, osteosarcopenic obesity is thought to be the most important concern in the future, because there are three health conditions that come together at once. The three conditions are osteoporosis (loss of bone mass), sarcopenia (loss of muscle mass), and obesity.

According to Jasminka Ilich-Ernst, a professor of nutrition at Florida State University, obesity not only puts people's bodies at higher risk for heart and blood vessel health problems, but also causes bone problems. Indeed, most studies have looked at the effects of obesity in metabolic rather than bone cases. However, the impact of obesity on bones cannot be underestimated.

Ilich-Ernst said that fat tissue has a negative impact on bone density, muscle strength, and also increases the effects of inflammation. Moreover, the fat in Peru is more toxic than in other parts.

Lifestyle changes are one way that can prevent or delay the occurrence of osteosarcopenic obesity so that body weight can be maintained in balance and the risk of experiencing bone and muscle problems is smaller. There is no special treatment or medicine in this case, apart from maintaining diet and exercise intake.

Not only in adults, obesity has an impact on children's bone health

1. More risk of fractures and short stature

Just like adults, obese children also have a greater chance of fractures. Reported in News Medical Life Science, obese children are more likely to experience frequent fractures in parts growth plate they. Growth plate is an area of tissue growing at the end of a long bone. This area of tissue that produces new bone tissue so that the child's bones can get longer, so that the child can get taller. Long bones for example in the legs and arms.

Broken bones in parts growth plate making this network function not optimal. This condition certainly interferes with the bone lengthening process which can result in permanent underweight children, crooked bones or even arthritis.

2. Feet flat

The impact of obesity also affects the soles of children's feet. Obese children often have flat feet. This condition makes them tired more easily when walking long distances. Children with flat feet should do stretching exercises that focus on the tendons in the heel, use special footwear to improve the shape of the feet, and adjust their body weight to reduce the heavier loads.

3. Impaired development of coordination

According to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, children who are obese often experience difficulty in their movement, examples of symptoms such as:

The child has problems with gross motor movements such as jumping, standing on one leg
Problems with fine motor skills such as writing, cutting, tying shoelaces

This condition of impaired development of coordination can interfere with or limit the child's ability to exercise. This has the potential to make the child's weight gain weight again.