They are false friends and influence – negatively – each other. Let’s talk about obesity and diabetes, one leads to the other so much so that it has led to the birth of a neologism that includes both, diabesity. This is why SID talks about it on the occasion of World Obesity Day which takes place on March 4th.
INSIGHTS
This is a particularly felt problem in Italy, where the risk of overweight and obesity is particularly high starting from the pediatric age: it is estimated that 8 out of 11 children/adolescents, according to the WOF, and 6 adults out of 10 adults will be affected . According to the latest “Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative” report from the European Office of the World Health Organization, Italy ranks 4th in Europe for the prevalence of overweight and obesity, just under 40%, surpassed only from Cyprus, Greece and Spain.
For the prevalence of obesity alone, however, our country is in 2nd place in Europe.
«An obese child has a 75-80% chance of becoming an obese adult at high risk of diabetes», explains Professor Angelo Avogaro, President of SID: «two words now closely related to the point of being defined with the sole term “diabesity”. ”. In contrast to this phenomenon, in addition to a healthy and varied diet, daily physical activity is needed, which in Italy is still too rare: again according to 44.8% of Italian adults do not practice an adequate level of physical activity, while this percentage even reaches 94.5% in children, the last OECD country”.
«Consolidated literature tells us that even a 5% decrease in weight reduces the risk of diabetes by 40% with a significant clinical improvement in glycated hemoglobin and blood pressure. Even moderate weight losses have improved not only the most common risk factors, but also disease outcomes such as fatty liver disease and sleep apnea in people with type 2 diabetes” declared Professor Avogaro who spoke at the presentation of the 5th report of the Italian Barometer Obesity Report in Rome.
«We know that overweight people have a three times higher risk of developing type two diabetes, while in subjects with a body mass greater than 30 (BMI) the risk is six times higher than in men and 10 times higher in women then point it is a correlation directly proportional to excess weight”, underlines Professor Frida Leonetti, Full Professor of Endocrinology at La Sapienza University – Polo Pontino: “the good news is that, in cases where the body mass index is high but not excessive, even moderate weight loss is very useful and improves blood sugar parameters. Bariatric surgery, on the other hand, makes the disease more treatable, with an improvement in glycemic control and the person’s general condition, in some cases with a remission of diabetes.”
SID’s membership of the World Obesity Federation has an important double meaning. Overweight and obesity together with diabetes mellitus represent, not only in the Western world, their own pandemic; if adequate prevention and treatment measures are not developed, it is estimated that the respective prevalences will increase exponentially in the coming years. SID, as a scientific society, intends to combat this global epidemic with training and dissemination work.
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