obesity

o·be·si·ty (ō-bēʹsĭ-tē) n.

The condition of being obese; increased body weight caused by excessive accumulation of fat.

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Excessive body fat.

It is usually caused by sedentary habits and a diet high in fat, alcohol, or total calories. Calories consumed but not used are stored as fat. Rare causes include glandular defects and excess steroids (see Cushing syndrome). Obesity raises the risk of heart disease and diabetes mellitus. Treatment, by reducing calorie intake and increasing exercise, is best undertaken with a doctor's advice.

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▪ medical disorder

Introduction

also called  corpulence  or  fatness 

 excessive accumulation of body fat, usually caused by the consumption of more calories than the body can use. The excess calories are then stored as fat, or adipose tissue. Overweight, if moderate, is not necessarily obesity, particularly in muscular or large-boned individuals.

Defining obesity

 Obesity was traditionally defined as an increase in body weight that was greater than 20 percent of an individual's ideal body weight—the weight associated with the lowest risk of death, as determined by certain factors, such as age, height, and gender. Based on these factors, overweight could then be defined as a 15–20 percent increase over ideal body weight. However, today the definitions of overweight and obesity are based strictly on measures of height and weight—not morbidity. These measures are used to calculate a number known as body mass index (BMI). This number, which is central to determining whether an individual is clinically defined as obese, parallels fatness but is not a direct measure of body fat. Interpretation of BMI numbers is based on weight status groupings, such as underweight, healthy weight, overweight, and obese, that are adjusted for age and sex. For all adults over age 20, BMI numbers correlate to the same weight status designations; for example, a BMI between 25.0 and 29.9 equates with overweight and 30.0 and above with obesity. (See nutritional disease: Diet and chronic disease (nutritional disease).)

The obesity epidemic

      Body weight is influenced by the interaction of multiple factors. There is strong evidence of genetic predisposition to fat accumulation, and obesity tends to run in families. However, the rise in obesity in populations worldwide since the 1980s has outpaced the rate at which genetic mutations (mutation) are normally incorporated into populations on a large scale. In addition, growing numbers of persons in parts of the world where obesity was once rare have also gained excessive weight. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), which considered global obesity an epidemic, in 2005 about 1.6 billion adults worldwide were overweight and 400 million were obese. Based on the WHO data, obesity rates in Europe in 2005 were triple what they had been several years earlier. In China the obesity rate for men and women had jumped from less than 1 percent in 1990 to more than 20 percent in 2005. Also in 2005 it was found that more than 70 percent of Mexican women were obese, and French researchers reported that, worldwide, 40 percent of men and 30 percent of women were overweight and 24 percent of men and 27 percent of women were obese. In the United States roughly 15 percent of adults age 20 to 74 were obese in the early 1980s and 34 percent were obese in 2007.

Childhood obesity

      Childhood obesity has become a significant problem in many countries. Overweight children often face stigma and suffer from emotional, psychological, and social problems. Obesity can negatively impact a child's education and future socioeconomic status. In 2004 an estimated nine million American children over age six, including teenagers, were overweight, or obese (the terms were typically used interchangeably in describing excess fatness in children). Moreover, in the 1980s and 1990s the prevalence of obesity had more than doubled among children age 2 to 5 (from 5 percent to 10 percent) and age 6 to 11 (from 6 percent to 15 percent). In 2008 these numbers had increased again, with nearly 20 percent of children age 2 to 19 being obese in the United States. Further estimates in some rural areas of the country indicated that more than 30 percent of school-age children suffered from obesity. Similar increases were seen in other parts of the world. In the United Kingdom, for example, the prevalence of obesity among children age 2 to 10 had increased from 10 percent in 1995 to 14 percent in 2003, and data from a study conducted there in 2007 indicated that 23 percent of children age 4 to 5 and 32 percent of children age 10 to 11 were overweight or obese.

      In 2005 the American Academy of Pediatrics called obesity “the pediatric epidemic of the new millennium.” Fat children were increasingly diagnosed with high blood pressure (hypertension), elevated cholesterol, and type II diabetes (diabetes mellitus)—conditions once seen almost exclusively in adults. In addition, overweight children experience broken bones (fracture) and problems with joints (joint) more often than normal-weight children. The long-term consequences of obesity in young people are of great concern to pediatricians and public health experts because obese children are at high risk of becoming obese adults. Experts on longevity have concluded that today's American youth might “live less healthy and possibly even shorter lives than their parents” if the rising prevalence of obesity is left unchecked.

      Curbing the rise in childhood obesity was the aim of the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a partnership formed in 2005 by the American Heart Association, former U.S. president Bill Clinton, and the children's television network Nickelodeon. The alliance intended to reach kids through a vigorous public-awareness campaign.

Causes of obesity

      The rapid rise in obesity is likely due to major shifts in environmental factors and changes in behaviour rather than a significant change in human genetics (genetics, human). For example, early feeding patterns imposed by an obese mother upon her offspring may play a major role in a cultural, rather than genetic, transmission of obesity from one generation to the next. More generally, the distinctive way of life of a nation and the individual's behavioral and emotional reaction to it may contribute significantly to widespread obesity. Among affluent populations, an abundant supply of readily available high-calorie foods and beverages, coupled with increasingly sedentary living habits that markedly reduce caloric needs, can easily lead to overeating. The stresses and tensions of modern living also cause some individuals to turn to foods and alcoholic drinks for “relief.” Indeed, researchers have found that the cause of obesity in all countries shares distinct similarities—diets rich in sweeteners and saturated fats, lack of exercise, and the availability of inexpensive processed foods.

      The root causes of childhood obesity are complex and are not fully understood, but it is clear that children become obese when they eat too much and exercise too little. In addition, many children make poor food decisions, choosing to eat unhealthy, sugary snacks instead of healthy fruits and vegetables. Lack of calorie-burning exercise has also played a major role in contributing to childhood obesity. In 2005 a survey found that American children age 8 to 18 spent an average of about six hours a day watching television and videos, playing video games, and using computers. Furthermore, maternal consumption of excessive amounts of fat during pregnancy programs overeating behaviour in children. For example, children have an increased preference for fatty foods if their mothers ate a high-fat diet during pregnancy. The physiological basis for this appears to be associated with fat-induced changes in the fetal brain. For example, when pregnant rats consume high-fat diets, brain cells in the developing fetuses produce large quantities of appetite-stimulating proteins (protein) called orexigenic peptides (peptide). These peptides continue to be produced at high levels following birth and throughout the lifetime of the offspring. As a result, these rats eat more, weigh more, and mature sexually earlier in life compared with rats whose mothers consumed normal levels of fats during pregnancy.

Health effects of obesity

      Obesity may be undesirable from an aesthetic sense, especially in parts of the world where slimness is the popular preference, but it is also a serious medical problem. Generally, obese persons have a shorter life expectancy; they suffer earlier, more often, and more severely from a large number of diseases than do their normal-weight counterparts. For example, people who are obese are also frequently affected by diabetes; in fact, worldwide, roughly 90 percent of type II diabetes cases are caused by excess weight. In addition, obese women are often affected by infertility, taking longer to conceive than normal-weight women, and obese women who become pregnant are at an increased risk of miscarriage. Men who are obese are also at increased risk of fertility problems, since excess body fat is associated with decreased testosterone levels. In general, relative to normal-weight individuals, obese individuals are more likely to die prematurely of degenerative diseases of the heart, arteries, and kidneys, and they have an increased risk of developing cancer. Obese individuals also have an increased risk of death from accidents and constitute poor surgical risks. Mental health is affected; behavioral consequences of an obese appearance, ranging from shyness and withdrawal to overly bold self-assertion, may be rooted in neuroses and psychoses.

Treatment of obesity

      The treatment of obesity has two main objectives: removal of the causative factors, which may be difficult if the causes are of emotional or psychological origin, and removal of surplus fat by reducing food intake. Return to normal body weight by reducing calorie intake is best done under medical supervision. Dietary fads and reducing diets (dieting) that produce quick results without effort are of doubtful effectiveness in reducing body weight and keeping it down, and most are actually deleterious to health. (See dieting.) Weight loss is best achieved through increased physical activity and basic dietary changes, such as lowering total calorie intake by substituting fruits and vegetables for refined carbohydrates.

      The development of drugs for the treatment of obesity has been controversial, primarily because the syndrome is viewed as stemming largely from behavioral influences that cannot be corrected by drugs alone. Two agents, rimonabant and taranabant, both of which belong to a class of drugs known as selective cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CB1) blockers, have shown some promise in suppressing calorie consumption and reducing body weight. However, because rimonabant can cause severe psychological side effects such as depression, anxiety, and nervousness, it has not been approved in most countries. Taranabant appears to have less-serious side effects than rimonabant, although it is still in clinical trials in the United States. Another agent being tested for obesity is SRT1720, a compound derived from resveratrol that promotes the metabolism of stored fat.

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