Overview of the comorbidity between medical illnesses and overweight/obesity

Abstract

Overweight and obesity are major contributors to the total global burden of chronic diseases due to the consequences of their associated comorbid conditions which can affect all systems of the body. These comorbidities are often considered to be consequence of the excess weight with unidirectional causality; however, causality is almost certainly multidirectional with roles for both physical and psychological factors. In this chapter, an overview of overweight- and obesity-related medical illnesses, categorised according to the body systems affected, is provided. Some focus is directed towards the role of the metabolic syndrome in these illnesses. The importance of causality of comorbid conditions at early, middle and late stages of disease is emphasised, as interventions targeting causalities at each of these times are likely to have the greatest impact on lessening the burden of overweight and obesity on affected individuals. Show more