Health related information and news from around the world.

Eating is not only a necessity, we also eat for other reasons — social, pleasure, habit and sometimes to satisfy a hunger for attention or to cope with our anxieties and depression.

We start off with a particular genetic make-up. This we can’t alter. We are destined to be either fat or thin. But then comes the influence of our environment and the behavior we learn. We can learn to avoid being overweight even if genetically we have that tendency.

Unfortunately, the seeds of obesity are often sown in childhood. A fat “healthy” baby is likely to grow into a fat child and a fat unhealthy adult.

It is now believed that the number of fat or adipose cells in the body are determined in childhood and that later in life the cells may increase in size but not in number. Being overweight in childhood means more adipose cells are formed and later in life they tend to fill up with fat and so we become obese.

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The cause of hardening of the arteries is unknown but it is associated with several factors. Diabetes, in which there is a relative lack of insulin, is a disorder in which there is a widespread metabolic disturbance, apart from an inability to metabolise sugar.

Diabetics are prone to develop atheroma in their arteries, more severely and at a younger age, than the rest of the population.

Atheroma is associated with high levels of fat in the blood. The blood fats consist of cholesterol and triglyceride. Cholesterol is produced in the body and is present in hormones and many tissues, and the blood level may be raised by a diet rich in animal fats.

A few cases with high triglyceride levels are due to an inherited disorder but most are the result of a diet high in carbohydrate which, in Australia, is usually due to beer or sugar.

High blood pressure may cause degenerative changes in the arteries and be associated with atheroma.

The other main factor is cigarette smoking.

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