Obesity is expected to affect 2 billion people worldwide – 03/08/2024 – Balance and Health

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More than 1 billion people, one in 8 in the world, are obese. The increase in cases in the last 30 years challenges the effectiveness of policies to combat risk factors for chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases.

In today’s edition, I explain the growth in obesity around the world and its impact on public health policies.

1 in 8 people in the world are obese

The world passed the mark of 1 billion people with obesity (879 million adults and 125 million children and adolescents). The alarming data was highlighted by a study coordinated by the Noncommunicable Disease Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD) in the United Kingdom together with the WHO (World Health Organization).

Before explaining the causes and effects of this problem, considered a chronic disease by the WHO, it is important to define it, especially because there is more than one category of obesity.

More seriously, the clinical obesity is the accumulation of adipose tissue (fat) that causes signs or symptoms of organ dysfunction or affects mobility. One effect of this is chronic inflammation of the body, which also harms the immune system.

Patients with this condition have an increased risk of developing other conditions, such as type 2 diabetes.

There is also the call preclinical obesitywhen there is adiposity, but no organ damage or dysfunction.

In the world…

The proportion of obese people grew by 300%, from 1990 to 2022. The condition now affects women more than men: the rate of obese women has quadrupled, while that of men has tripled. In younger people, the total number of cases for both sexes quadrupled, although there are more boys than girls with the problem.

According to a survey by the World Obesity Federation (WOF), by 2035 we should have 3.3 billion people with the condition in the world, or around a third of the population.

This is worrying because it is a risk factor for several diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, type 2 diabetes and cancer.

The same report points to costs related to the disease of up to US$4 trillion (around R$20 trillion), or 3% of global GDP (gross domestic product).

…It’s in Brazil?

There has been an increase in cases in recent years and there are projections for an even more serious scenario. Estimates for the prevalence of obese young people (aged 5 to 19 years) in the country point to a jump in the next decade.

The study by the World Obesity Federation points out that the condition is advancing especially in the poorest places, where purchasing power is directly linked to access to healthy food.

According to the Atlas, 78% of deaths resulting from obesity occurred in these countries, where there are also high prevalence rates of chronic non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases.

Yes but.. Brazil is today a reference country in scientific publications and guidelines that support healthy eating.

According to the 2006 Food Guide for the Brazilian Population, a balanced diet should be based mainly on fresh foods, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, and contain a moderate amount of processed or minimally processed foods.

The Ministry of Health also launched a program at the beginning of the year to reinforce the importance of health promotion and prevention measures as a way of reducing the incidence of diseases and improving the risk factor for other health conditions.

SCIENCE TO LIVE BETTER

News and studies on health and science

• Mechanism that increases microbial resistance revealed. Researchers from the Marine Biology Laboratory at the University of Chicago, in the United States, have discovered how some bacteria can increase resistance to certain antibiotics by multiplying parts of the DNA known as transposons or “jumping DNA”. This set of genes was identified in several bacterial communities from a patient who was hospitalized with a colon ulcer resulting from an inflammatory disease. With the discovery, scientists believe they can develop new drugs that can attack multidrug-resistant bacteria. The study was published in the journal mBio.

• Study links smoking to cancerous mutations. A survey of 2,782 patients found genetic changes known as methylation (addition or replacement of new molecular chains in DNA) in smokers who had lung cancer, which indicates that tobacco causes cellular changes that lead to the appearance of tumors. The study, carried out by scientists at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, was published in the American Journal of Human Genetics.