Toronto (dpa) - Obesity is not only bad for your heart. According to a Canadian study it can have a negative effect on a person's entire health, including mental faculties.

Women are worst affected, says the study by researchers at the University of Toronto.

Kostas Trakas, author of the study, evaluated the results of an official Canadian government health survey from 38,151 persons, categorizing them in terms of gender, weight, smoking habits or educational qualifications.

Trakas found some interesting correlations such as one which showed that the cognitive ability of overweight or chronically fat people was slower. The obese are also more sensitive to pain and less agile.

Men said they viewed their weight problem as being no more of an irritant than an attack of migraine whereas women say excess pounds affect them as badly as diabetes or a heart attack.

Neil Shear, head of clinical pharmacology at Toronto University said doctors should wake up to the fact that obesity as an illness has an adverse affect on the daily lives of many Canadians. It should be seen solely as the result of an unhealthy living style. "Instead of treating each symptom of obesity doctors should see being overweight as part of a patient's overall problem."

　　From Healthy.net