Obesity is known as a disorder involving excessive body fat that increases the risk of health problems including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, high blood pressure, unhealthy cholesterol, asthma, sleep apnea, gallstones, kidney stones, infertility, and cancers such as leukemia, breast, and colon.
Body mass index (weight/height2) > 30kg/m2 connotes obesity.
(Class I: BMI 30 to <35kg/m². Class II: BMI 35 to <4kg/m². Class III:BMI 40+ kg/m²)
Causes of obesity & overweight
Excessive eating and sedentary lifestyle, genetic disposition environmental factors, Medications, Stress, Emotional Factors, and Poor Sleep.
Symptoms of obesity are:
- Pain in the back or joints, overweight,
- Abdominal obesity
- Binge eating
- Fatigue, or snoring
- Difficulty in sleeping
- Sleep apnoea
- Daytime drowsiness
- Excessive sweating
- Intolerance to heat
- Infections in skin folds
- Fatigue
- Depression, and feeling of shortness of breath (dyspnoea).
Treatment
Lifestyle change – a combination of diet, exercise, and behavioral therapy. Intensive behavioral therapy targets poor habits that lead to obesity.
Drugs therapy: Metreleptin and Setmelanotide are currently indicated for rare obesity syndromes, and 5 other medications (orlistat, phentermine/topiramate, naltrexone/bupropion, liraglutide, semaglutide) are approved for nonsyndromic obesity.
Above all, PREVENTION! PREVENTION!! PREVENTION!!! remains the key management and cure.