-
Bulletin of Experimental Biology and... Sep 2023The content of individual unsaturated fatty acids in blood plasma (measured by HPLC) and their association with abdominal obesity in a group of men (mean age 52.2 years)...
The content of individual unsaturated fatty acids in blood plasma (measured by HPLC) and their association with abdominal obesity in a group of men (mean age 52.2 years) was analyzed. The abdominal obesity was diagnosed according to the criteria of the All-Russian Scientific Society of Cardiology (waist circumference >94 cm). Men with abdominal obesity had higher levels of ω-6 γ-linolenic and dihomo-γ-linolenic acids, as well as ω-3 eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids. They also had significantly elevated plasma levels of triglycerides and glucose and lower levels of HDL. Using single-factor ROC analysis we determined optimal cut-off thresholds for fatty acid levels indicating the presence of abdominal obesity. The results of regression analysis showed that the level of γ-linolenic acid is directly associated with the chance of abdominal obesity.s.
Topics: Male; Humans; Middle Aged; Fatty Acids; Obesity, Abdominal; Obesity; Fatty Acids, Unsaturated; Fatty Acids, Omega-3
PubMed: 37861907
DOI: 10.1007/s10517-023-05915-x -
Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine :... May 2004To suggest the role of the practicing physician in examining and treating childhood obesity. How should obesity be determined at clinical examination? Is there an... (Comparative Study)
Comparative Study Review
OBJECTIVE
To suggest the role of the practicing physician in examining and treating childhood obesity. How should obesity be determined at clinical examination? Is there an obesity epidemic? What is the likely influence of obesity upon current and future health? What are the causes of obesity, and what does this imply for prevention and treatment?
DATA SOURCES
Relevant articles in Medline and personal files.
DATA SYNTHESIS
The 80th and 95th percentiles of body mass index and skinfold readings provide the most commonly accepted indices of overweight and obesity in the child. Over the last 20 years, the proportions of overweight and obese children have increased in both indigenous populations and most developed societies. Current methods of assessing physical activity and diet during childhood lack the precision to establish the primary cause of the obesity epidemic, but correlational analysis shows a close relationship between body fat content and a decline in daily energy expenditures. Immediate consequences of childhood obesity include an increased prevalence of atherosclerotic plaques, hypertension, and an adverse lipid profile, with a poor self-image that limits participation in physical activity. Tracking is such that many obese children become obese adults, and in consequence, the long-term risks of cardiovascular and all-cause deaths are increased. The prevention of obesity is easier than its cure. A combination of increased lifestyle activities, less sedentary behavior, and dietary modification seems the most effective approach. This should be supported by the use of behavioral modification techniques and changes in the urban environment that encourage an active lifestyle.
CONCLUSIONS
The pediatric physician can contribute to the control of obesity by monitoring body mass index and skinfold thicknesses in all patients. Children above the 50th percentile of body fat need dietary modification and a greater amount of moderate physical activity. Physicians should also advocate quality daily physical education and an environment that encourages adoption of an active lifestyle.
Topics: Adolescent; Body Mass Index; Child; Female; Humans; Male; Obesity; Physician's Role; Risk Reduction Behavior
PubMed: 15166905
DOI: 10.1097/00042752-200405000-00009 -
Current Drug Abuse Reviews Sep 2011Advances in neuroimaging techniques have provided insight into the role of the brain in the regulation of food intake and weight. Growing evidence demonstrate that... (Review)
Review
Advances in neuroimaging techniques have provided insight into the role of the brain in the regulation of food intake and weight. Growing evidence demonstrate that energy dense, palatable foods elicit similar responses in reward-related brain regions that mimic those of addictive substances. Currently, various models of obesity's relation to reward from food have been theorized. There is evidence to support a theory of hypo-responsivity of reward regions to food, where individuals consume excess amounts to overcome this reward deficit. There is also data to support a theory of hyper-responsivity of reward regions, where individuals who experience greater reward from food intake are at risk for overeating. However, these seemingly discordant theories are static in nature and do not account for the possible effects of repeated overeating on brain responsivity to food and initial vulnerability factors. Here we review data that support these theories and propose a dynamic vulnerability model of obesity that appears to offer a parsimonious theory that accommodates extant findings.
Topics: Animals; Behavior, Addictive; Functional Neuroimaging; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Neural Pathways; Obesity; Reward
PubMed: 21999692
DOI: 10.2174/1874473711104030182 -
Reviews in Endocrine & Metabolic... Oct 2023In this thematic issue on phenotyping the obesities, prominent international experts offer an insightful and comprehensive collection of articles covering the current... (Review)
Review
In this thematic issue on phenotyping the obesities, prominent international experts offer an insightful and comprehensive collection of articles covering the current knowledge in the field. In order to actually capture all the polyhedral determinants of the diverse types of obesity, the granularity of the phenotypic information acquired must be expanded in the context of a personalized approach. Whilst the use of precision medicine has been successfully implemented in areas like cancer and other diseases, health care providers are more reluctant to embrace detailed phenotyping to guide diagnosis, treatment and prevention in obesity. Given its multiple complex layers, phenotyping necessarily needs to go beyond the multi-omics approach and incorporate all the diverse spheres that conform the reality of people living with obesity. Potential barriers, difficulties, roadblocks and opportunities together with their interaction in a syndemic context are analyzed. Plausible lacunae are also highlighted in addition to pointing to the need of redefining new conceptual frameworks. Therefore, this extraordinary collection of state-ofthe-art reviews provides useful information to both experienced clinicians and trainees as well as academics to steer clinical practice and research in the management of people living with obesity irrespective of practice setting or career stage.
Topics: Humans; Utopias; Obesity
PubMed: 37537402
DOI: 10.1007/s11154-023-09829-x -
Ciba Foundation Symposium 1996During the last decade, we have begun to understand some of the reasons why people become obese as assessed by excess body mass for height or excess total body fat... (Review)
Review
During the last decade, we have begun to understand some of the reasons why people become obese as assessed by excess body mass for height or excess total body fat content. Obesity frequently aggregates in families. However, this familial resemblance is caused not only by genetic effects but also by lifestyle, and environmental and cultural factors. Thus the genetic heritability of the obesity phenotypes accounts for up to 50% of the age- and gender-adjusted phenotypic variances. These results have been confirmed by overfeeding and negative energy balance studies. The effects of single segregating genes can be detected only under the correct experimental conditions. Most scientists in the area believe that these genes can be identified and that the DNA mutations associated with human obesities will be uncovered. Indeed, association and linkage studies, quantitative trait loci and positional cloning research strategies, and transgenic mouse models are sufficiently promising to suggest that these aims can be achieved. A review of the evidence reported thus far reveals that there are already four loci with strong evidence of linkage with obesity phenotypes in humans.
Topics: Animals; Body Mass Index; Family; Genotype; Humans; Hyperphagia; Obesity; Phenotype; Prevalence; Risk Factors
PubMed: 9017277
DOI: 10.1002/9780470514962.ch7 -
Nature Reviews. Endocrinology Oct 2023
Topics: Humans; Leptin; Precision Medicine; Obesity; Receptors, Leptin
PubMed: 37525005
DOI: 10.1038/s41574-023-00882-9 -
La Revue de Medecine Interne Oct 2005Both genetic and environmental aspects are recognized in the obesity field but we are not able to elucidate multiple genes and gene-environment interactions with the... (Comparative Study)
Comparative Study Review
BACKGROUND
Both genetic and environmental aspects are recognized in the obesity field but we are not able to elucidate multiple genes and gene-environment interactions with the present resources and tools used in the study of this complex disease. The purpose of this paper is to present some examples of the knowledge acquired in the field of obesity genetics and the new ongoing tools and developments that aim at studying the contribution of genes to obesity and their response to environmental changes.
MAIN POINTS
In rare cases of monogenic obesities, genetic tools have proved extremely powerful for identifying the genes responsible and for defining new syndromes. However, in common obesity, most studies include the search for genotype-phenotype associations without taking into account the influence of environment (diet, sedentary lifestyle) in the relationship. Among the limitations to this integrated approach, one can cite the difficulty of having large enough samples as well as biocomputing tools that are still in their infancy for accessing the question of multiple interactions with no "a priori hypotheses". This picture will probably change rapidly in the future.
PERSPECTIVE
Large databases and DNA and biological sample banks will be available with updated environmental information and precise phenotypes thanks especially to European working groups. The capacity for studying multiple genes at once at the DNA or RNA levels is rapidly growing. Finally, tremendous progress in biocomputing will allow the integration of information from different sources (i.e. environment, phenotype, genotype, gene expression) and thus improve our ability to deal with complexity.
Topics: Adult; Animals; Child; Cohort Studies; Disease Models, Animal; Environment; Female; Forecasting; Gene Expression; Genetic Predisposition to Disease; Genotype; Homeostasis; Humans; Infant; Leptin; Male; Mice; Mutation; Obesity; Phenotype; Polymorphism, Genetic; Receptor, Melanocortin, Type 4; Receptors, Cell Surface; Receptors, Leptin; Risk; Syndrome
PubMed: 15927311
DOI: 10.1016/j.revmed.2005.03.017 -
Psychotherapie, Psychosomatik,... 2001Overweight and obesity are widespread in industrial countries and are considered to be serious health problems in these countries. Population-based studies in Germany... (Review)
Review
Overweight and obesity are widespread in industrial countries and are considered to be serious health problems in these countries. Population-based studies in Germany have shown that between 12 and 18 % of the adult population is obese. Overweight and obesity are accompanied by a large spectrum of health disorders and extreme psychosocial burdens. Besides the hereditary disposition, the life style including both intra- and inter-individual aspects determines the complex etiology of obesity. Within the collective sample of the obese, one sub-sample is the "psychogenic obese" i. e. in which psychiatric disorders lead to a change in both eating and exercise behavior, the result then being a continuous positive energy reserve in the form of overweight and obesity. The paper describes the psychosocial problems of obese persons; especially the controverse question with regard to psychiatric morbidity in general and eating disorders in particular are emphasized. The results of past, mainly behavioral oriented treatment concepts are presented and various concepts beyond single school orientation are discussed. Finally, the problems with psychiatric psychological diagnostics in those obese patients with the request for surgical weight reduction within the context of insurance coverage and the surgeons are presented.
Topics: Animals; Humans; Obesity; Psychosomatic Medicine
PubMed: 11533880
DOI: 10.1055/s-2001-16901 -
The American Psychologist 2013Obesity has become a true pandemic. In the United States, over two thirds of adults are obese or overweight. The prevalence of obesity has doubled since 1980. The... (Review)
Review
Obesity has become a true pandemic. In the United States, over two thirds of adults are obese or overweight. The prevalence of obesity has doubled since 1980. The increase in the prevalence of obese and overweight individuals has happened too rapidly for it to be due to an alteration in the genome. The gastrointestinal, sensory (taste and olfaction), and brain feeding mechanisms that developed during the past 2 million years were highly adaptive for ancestral hunter-gatherers living in an environment with limited high-density foods and periods of food deprivation. Today, however, humans in industrialized countries live in what has been called an "obesogenic environment." The nonhomeostatic brain reward circuitry that was acquired during evolution to seek out and eat as many nutritionally high-dense foods as possible is able to overrule the physiological inhibitory mechanisms that were designed to limit meal size and weight gain.
Topics: Biological Evolution; Eating; Epidemics; Humans; Obesity; Reward; United States
PubMed: 23244211
DOI: 10.1037/a0030684 -
Experimental Biology and Medicine... Dec 2001Although rapid globalization of the Westernized way of life is responsible for the large rise in the number of obesity cases (about 1 billion individuals are now... (Review)
Review
Although rapid globalization of the Westernized way of life is responsible for the large rise in the number of obesity cases (about 1 billion individuals are now overweight or frankly obese), obesity is a typical common multifactorial disease in that environmental and genetic factors interact, resulting in a disease state. There is strong evidence for a genetic component to human obesity: e.g., the familial clustering (the relative risk among siblings being 3-7) and the high concordance of body composition in monozygotic twins. However, the role of genetic factors in many human obesities (referred to as "common obesity" in this review) is complex, being determined by interaction of several genes (polygenic), each of which may have relatively small effects (i.e., they are "susceptibility" genes and work in combination with each other as well as with environmental factors such as nutrients, physical activity, and smoking).
Topics: Adipocytes; Body Weight; Chromosome Mapping; Diseases in Twins; Family Health; Genetic Linkage; Humans; Hypothalamus; Leptin; Models, Biological; Obesity; Polymorphism, Genetic
PubMed: 11743134
DOI: 10.1177/153537020122601105