Obesity as a 21st century pandemic

Abstract

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), overweight and obesity are defined as an abnormal or excessive accumulation of fat that poses a health risk to the patient. Obesity was recognised as a disease by the WHO in the late 40s, and as the number of obese adults and children is increasing globally it is reaching pandemic proportions. The WHO considers the fight against obesity as one of its top priorities because obesity is not only a global problem but also a risk factor for the development of other serious chronic diseases (hypertension, coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, hypercholesterolaemia, hypertriglyceridaemia, musculoskeletal disorders, osteoarthritis, sleep disturbances, psychiatric disorders, cancers). Increasing physical inactivity, sedentary lifestyle and changes in dietary habits involving increased intake of energy-dense foods also contribute to the development of obesity. Obesity, as part of the metabolic syndrome is considered a pandemic based on its globally increasing prevalence. More than half of the population living in Europe and North America is overweight and obese. It is predicted that by 2035, approximately 1.9 trillion people worldwide will be obese, making obesity a current topic as a 21st century pandemic, and we deal with it in our paper [3,4,5,9,15,21,27,28,31]. The aim of this review is to report the latest findings on overweight and obesity in relation to the development of cancer, the rise of overweight and obesity during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the impact of overweight and obesity on the severity of the COVID-19 disease process.