Which Is More Damaging – Smoking Or Obesity?

A few days ago while walking my dog at 8.30 in the morning I met two beautiful young girls on their way home from a sleepover, still wearing their pyjamas, singing along to the music playing on their ipods. As I smiled at them, they smiled back and even greeted me with a chirpy "Morning!" I was struck by their happy energy, confidence and carefree spirits but felt a tinge of sadness that their bodies looked so out of condition for their young age. I had the pleasure of meeting them again a little while later as I walked back along the path and found them sat down in the middle of the pavement, smoking. We connected once again as we talked about my dog and their sleepover and they told me how tired they were from lack of sleep. This then opened the door for further conversation on how they were feeling and I was able to bring up the subject of smoking which they seemed to welcome discussing, and then thanked me for helping them think about their behaviour and how it might be affecting their health. When they told me they were only 13 years old I was shocked. Not only because they were smoking but also by their obvious high levels of bodyfat at such a young age! This, coupled with a later conversation with Dusty (one of our FatScrappers) led me to think about which is more damaging, smoking or obesity?

Well, as always, The Universe answered my question and I was directed to a study that highlights a big health risk of obesity in children. It found that...

• The plaque build up in the neck arteries of obese children or those with high cholesterol is similar to levels in middle-aged adults.
• Using ultrasound images, researchers equated the “vascular age” to be 45 years old in these children.

• Obese children who have high triglycerides are the most likely to have prematurely aging arteries; these children should be treated as high risk for cardiovascular disease, researchers concluded.

Now this also shocked me. Does it you? And it made me wonder what is the “vascular age" of my arteries?

We can not see what is going on inside our bodies but we can see accumulated body fat on the outside and realise that it might be reflecting the potential damage we are doing to ourselves on the inside. Overweight and obese people are at a higher risk of developing diabetes, many forms of cancer, heart disease and can lead to the onset of almost every degenerative condition.
People who smoke are at higher risk of heart disease, stroke, lung disease, lung cancer and many other forms of cancer, and children who smoke under the age of 15 are three times more likely to die prematurely than someone who starts smoking at 20 years of age!
So, my conclusion is, obesity is as damaging as smoking. We all know that smoking may seriously damage our health but often fail to recognise that obesity may also seriously damage our health. Some would argue that obesity is a disease, as the body is not “at ease” and so health is damaged already! If someone is already obese and smokes, then the combined unhealthy actions of eating too many unhealthy foods with inactivity and smoking will result in even higher risks to health.
Once we all take more responsibility for our health, change our choices and our actions, we can all lower our risks of developing disease and increase our happiness, quality of life and wellbeing.
Going back to the 13 year old girls who are obese and smoking, well I just hope that I may have made a difference in the few minutes that I spoke to them about their choices and actions as these, combined with their young age are a potential lethal cocktail for their future health and happiness.

Sue x