Obesity

INDICE: SECTION I GENERAL ASPECTS – SECTION II PHYSIOPATHOLOGY -- SECTION III PREVENTION AND TREATMENT

Obesity is a common, serious and growing problem. Epidemiological evidence indicates that 1.1 billion people worldwide are above their ideal weight. In the US, 66.7% of adults are overweight or obese, but despite these appalling numbers, the continental US ranks "only" third among the top ten Fattest Countries in the World. The first position goes to American Samoa with 93.5% of the population being overweight/obese. Interestingly, these top ten countries do not seem to follow any specific geographical, cultural, ethnic or economic clustering, and include populations as diverse as Germans (number 4, 66.5%); Egyptians (number 5, 66%); New Zealand people (number 7, 62.7%); Croatians (number 9, 61.4%) and finally the English that closes the list with 61%. In the US alone, obesity is blamed as a contributing factor in over 300,000 deaths annually, with economic costs reaching more than US$ 100 billion. In view of this, public health authorities have declared that we are suffering a pandemic of "globesity", term coined by the World Health Organization in 2001 to impress upon us the widespread enormity of the problem. However, the most worrisome aspect of this pandemic is not in its current prevalence but in the forecasted trends for the next few decades, especially knowing that currently, children and adolescents are the segment of the population with the fastest growing overweight and obesity rates.

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