In some cultures, being “slightly overweight” is a sign of affluence, or perhaps “being healthy.”

But based on medical findings, a person who is slightly overweight with 10 to 20 pounds of excess body fat should not be considered as healthy. In fact, the risk of serious diseases could dramatically increase. Consider these facts:

• Hypertension--when people are overweight, their increased blood pressure makes the heart pump harder, which is bad for the body’s system. The heart has to pump more blood through the extra ¼ mile of extra blood vessels, arteries, capillaries and veins for an extra pound of fat they have in their body.

The pressure also causes the arteries susceptible to “bursting” or what is called as an aneurysm.

• Diabetes--gaining just 11 pounds of extra weight can increase the risk of acquiring diabetes. One study showed that each additional unit of Body Mass Index or BMI, over 22, is associated with increased risk of developing diabetes by 25 percent.

• Heart attacks and coronary artery disease--many cases of heart attacks were due to the patient being overweight. Just a small gain of 11 to 18 pounds increases heart attacks by 25 percent.

• Stroke--the risk of developing stroke is 75 percent higher in women who are overweight, while the spikes up at 137 percent in people who are considered obese.

• Cancer--Studies show that overweight patients have an increased risk of breast, endometrial, colorectal, gallbladder and kidney cancer. Women who gained 20 pounds starting from age 18 to midlife doubled the risk of having breast cancer, while the number of endometrial cancer cases increased by 34 to 56 percent.

• Arthritis--How much extra weight do you have to carry to develop arthritis? Studies show that gaining just 2.2 pounds can already increase the risk of developing arthritis by anywhere from 9 to 13 percent.

• Gallstones--studies have confirmed that risks of developing gallstones and having surgery to remove the gallbladder increase with BMI. Most susceptible are overweight, middle-aged women.

Other illnesses such as sleep apnea, peptic ulcer disease, gastroesophageal reflux disease, depression, leg ulcers and infections are also directly affected by unwanted extra fat stored in the body.

Furthermore, many studies have shown that people who are overweight, even slightly overweight have a greater mortality rate within a 50 to 100 percent increased chance of death due to any cause compared to people who maintain their ideal weight.