Antonio Acosta Juliana Ballanes Christine Ciscone
Dyslipidemia Paper People all over the world are aware of such huge dilemma, obesity . Everyone says that they know what obesity means (over weight) but they really do not know how to define it. Obesity society referenced the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stating that obesity is excess fat tissue in a person’s body. Scientists have created a formula to determine how much fat tissue a person has they call it Body Mass Index. The formula is Weight divided by height inches square times 704.5 and that equals the BMI. A person with 18.5 and below is underweight and a normal weight person would be around 18.5 to 24.9 higher than that the person is overweight. A person with 30 and greater is obese and 40 and greater morbid or extreme obesity. Over eating is one of the causes of obesity. There is a signal in the brain that tells the person to stop eating and but decided not too. Obesity affects over on third of the people in the US or around 72 million people. The people that obesity affects the most are the Non-Hispanic blacks. They have the highest rates of obesity around 44.1% compared with Mexican Americans 39.3%. Also all Hispanics with 37.9% and non-Hispanic whites 32.6% have a greater risk of obesity. Obesity is a big problem because it is one of the highest cause of deaths in the US due to the consequences of being overweight. More than 100,000 people die of obesity each year. People are not giving their body what it needs to live a strong healthy life, not eating healthy and lack exercise could prevent being overweight. The health care cost for a person that is obese is around the billions. Who wants to waste billions of dollars for the cost of health care?

Obesity leads to type 2 Diabetes, Hypertension, Dyslipidemia, Gallstones, Osteoarthritis, Fatty Liver Disease, Sleep Apnea, GERD, Stress Incontinence, Heart Failure, Degenerative Joint Disease, Birth Defects, Miscarriages, Asthma and more. According to the Pub Med Health Website “cholesterol is a fat (also called a lipid) that your body needs to work properly. Cholesterol levels that are too high can increase your chance of getting heart disease, stroke and other problems.” (1) Our bodies contain the proper amount of cholesterol, therefore, none needs to be added. Cholesterol levels are determined by a ratio and also two that are taught frequently are HDL and LDL. HDL is known as high density lipoprotein or good cholesterol. LDL is known as low density lipoprotein or bad cholesterol. A blood test is performed to determine your levels of cholesterol and this is usually recommended at age 20 or older. Once the levels are determined they should be rechecked every 6 months unless otherwise directed by your primary care physician. According to the Pub Med website “usually the general target range is LDL: 70-130 mg/dL (lower numbers are better), HDL: more than 40-60 mg/dL (high numbers are better), total cholesterol: less than 200 mg/dL (lower numbers are better) triglycerides: 10-150 mg/dL (lower numbers are better).” (2) If your numbers are known as abnormal then further blood tests maybe preformed such as diabetes and thyroid tests. High cholesterol is usually genetic. Once it is determined that an individual has high cholesterol there are several treatments that could be recommended. Sometimes medication can be suggested, exercise daily at least 30 minutes a day quit smoking, change in lifestyle and change in diet. High cholesterol levels are definitely related to obesity because one affects the other and can cause more problems in the body with diabetes, heart problems, stroke, etc.

My name is Christine Ciscone and I am an individual that suffers from both obesity and cholesterol and I would like to share my story with you. My dad and mom both have high cholesterol but neither of them is overweight. I also suffer from minor