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There has been a continuous interest in the consequences of excessive weight on health outcomes, mainly because of the fact that the world’s population is becoming heavier. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 1 billion people are overweight, with 300 million meeting the criteria for obesity. A recent review on this issue [1] was based on a PubMed search using the key words “obesity”, “overweight”, “body mass index” (BMI), “gender”, “women’s health”. This review analyzes in separate chapters the associations between common diseases and obesity. The main topics discussed were summarized in the article as follows: 

 

1. [i]Obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM)[/i]: ‘The risk of DM increases with the degree and duration of being overweight or obese and with a more central or visceral distribution of body fat.’

 

2. [i]Obesity and coronary artery disease (CAD)[/i]: ‘Obesity is an independent risk factor for the development of CAD in women and is an important modifiable risk factor for prevention of CAD.’

 

3. [i]Obesity and musculo-skeletal pain[/i]: ‘Obesity has been implicated in the development or progression of low back pain and knee osteoarthritis in women.’

Author(s)

  • Amos Pines
    Department of Medicine T, Ichilov Hospital, Tel-Aviv, Israel

Citations

  1. Kulie T, Slattengren A, Redmer J, et al. Obesity and womens health: An evidence-based review. J Am Board Fam Med 2011;24:75-85 (free for downloading in PubMed).
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21209347
  2. Zajacova A, Dowd JB, Burgard SA. Overweight adults may have the lowest mortality do they have the best health? Am J Epidemiol 2011;173:430-7.
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21228416
  3. Adams KF, Schatzkin A, Harris TB, et al. Overweight, obesity, and mortality in a large prospective cohort of persons 50 to 71 years old. N Engl J Med 2006;355:763-78 (free for downloading in PubMed).
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16926275
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