The Characteristics Of Chinese Canadian Obesity

In recent decades, with the progress of economic development and the changing of lifestyle, the prevalence rate of obesity is raising around the world. Obesity means the body fat exceeds 20% more than normal. Obesity is a chronic metabolic disease which exhibits excessive nutrients in the body and it is caused by multiple factors. Most medical personnel believe that obesity is related to genetic, age, physical activities, eating habit, work, rest and emotion.In traditional Chinese Medicine theory, obesity is the result of the people who regularly ingest greasy food, who prefer to have more passive activity and lack of physical exercises. This kind of lifestyle causes obesity where the spleen fails to digest the food properly which leads to the accumulation of plagues and phlegm. Performance fatigue is most often the visual indicator of this chronic disease.In recent years, people are becoming more aware of the correlation between obesity and related diseases as numerous studies proved that obesity may increase the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, Type II diabetes, fatty liver, gall bladder disease, sleep apnea, osteoarthritis and some types of cancers. Currently, the waist circumference (WC) is accepted as the simplest and the most useful indicator for measure the fat degree that accumulated in the abdomen (abdominal obesity). For man who's WC≥85cm and for women who's WC≥80cm can be diagnosed as obesity. The body mass index (BMI) is a heuristic proxy for human body fat based on an individual's weight and height. It may reflect the total body fat content. The cut-off points of BMI Classification:BMI≥25~26 for the 1 Class (overweight), BMI 26~<30 for the II Class (mild obese), BMI 30~<40 for the III Class (moderate obese), BMI≥40 for the IV Class (severe obese). It is more effective to use both WC and BMI to estimate chronic diseases related to obesity.ObjectiveObesity does not only affect appearance and it can also affect health seriously. The Statistics Canada announced that the Chinese Canadian obesity problem is becoming more serious even when there are the availabilities of weight loss products, service and health education. In order to achieve the best treatment result, we must first fully understand the patients and grasp the incidental characteristics. This paper is a study from the perspective view of the theory of traditional Chinese Medicine. Collection of the relevant information of the obese patients of Chinese Canadian and analyzing the valid information will help to achieve the best treatment for obesity. The purpose of this study is to figure out the characteristics of obesity of the Chinese Canadian population. Hopefully, it can improve the effectiveness of acupunctural treatment of obesity and allow people to gain more confidence in acupuncture as an alternative treatment of obesity.MethodUsing questionnaire to survey patients, to collect the relevant data including mental emotions, physical symptoms, dietary and exercise habits of the Chinese Canadian patients in Canada. Using statistical induction, the analysis of the survey data will figure out the prevailing common and specific characteristics of obesity suffered by Chinese Canadian patients.Conclusion1. The survey included 127 obese patients which can be broadly classified into four types of syndrome:(1) 13 cases in Stomach Heat and Dampness Syndrome or 10% of the sample group; (2) 23 cases in Spleen Kidney Yang Deficiency Syndrome or 18%; (3) 43 cases in Liver Qi Stagnation Syndrome or 34%; (4) 45 cases in Spleen Deficiency and Phlegm Dampness Syndrome or 36%. Three cases were not classified because of the lack of clear symptoms.2. In the sample group,63.8% of Chinese Canadians were mildly obese, 25.2% were moderately obese,9.4% were overweight, and only 1.6% was severely obese.3. 72.4% of the sampled Chinese Canadians have accumulation of fat around the areas of the waist and the abdomen.4. 46.5% of Chinese Canadians underestimates their degree of obesity that may have caused them to neglect the hazards of obesity. Therefore, they may not pay enough attention on their body situation and unable to determine the effort necessarily to take the counter measures for losing weight much earlier.5. The reasons that cause obesity to the Chinese Canadians are:having meals at restaurants frequently; eating too much western food or western style fast food; drinking a lot of coffee and milk which are high calories drinks; and lack of physical exercise or activity.6. Canada is located in the Frigid Zone:the climate, the water and the soil are cold. The environmental factors contribute to the suffering of Spleen Kidney Yang Deficiency Syndrome by the patients. In addition, Chinese Canadians often drink cool beverages such as soy milk and other chilled drinks which contribute to the injury to the spleen's Yang. Patients become obese due to failure of the Yang to remove and to transform excess nutrients as the fat accumulated. Therefore, we have found more obese people suffering from Spleen-Kidney Yang Deficiency Syndrome than suffering from Stomach Heat and Dampness Syndrome.7. People are easily susceptible to have negative emotion because there are a lot of pressures living in Canada. That is why 34% of the cases suffered the Liver Qi Stagnation Syndrome. We should not ignore it as it consists of a fairly substantial portion of the sample group. People engaged in binge eating, as a way to cope with emotional crisis, is very common in the clinical examples.ExperienceThe traditional Chinese Medicine has had a certain long term understanding of obesity. We can find from a large number of ancient documents which describe the symptoms, etiology, and pathogenesis about obesity. Ancient physicians pointed out that those obese patients always have issues of phlegm dampness, have phlegm and with Qi deficiency, have phlegm with Yang deficiency; have dampness and heat, and have mixture of phlegm and blood stasis. These conditions provide very good guidelines for clinical practice. The phlegm, dampness, water and blood stasis are the etiology of obesity as it combines with connate and acquired factors. Obesity caused the accumulation of phlegm, dampness and fat within the body. Through this study, the Chinese Canadian obesity syndromes can be broadly divided into four major categories:Stomach Heat and Dampness Syndrome, Spleen-Kidney Yang Deficiency Syndrome, Liver Qi Stagnation Syndrome, and Spleen Deficiency and Phlegm dampness Syndrome. In addition, one third of obesity patients suffering in type of Liver Qi Stagnation Syndrome, it shows many Chinese Canadians are suffering from emotion problems which we should pay attention to.