Obesity linked to premature death

It is well known that being overweight can lead to health complications including diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer.

A recent study published in Lancet reports on a meta-analysis of 239 prospective studies published from 1970 to last year (median follow-up 13·7 years).  Of those 3 951 455 people in 189 studies were never-smokers without chronic diseases at recruitment who survived 5 years, of whom 385 879 died.   The investigators extracted their information from 10 625 411 participants in Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Europe, and North America.

They compared the risk of death to people's body mass index, or BMI, a measure of body fat that is calculated using height and weight.  They defined a BMI from 18.5 to 25 as normal, 25-30 as overweight, 30-35 as moderately obese and over 40 as severely obese.

In the study, the risk of dying before the age of 70 was 19 percent for men and 11 percent for women of normal weight.

But that risk jumped to 30 percent and 15 percent, respectively, for obese men and women.  The investigators found that overweight people die one year earlier than expected and that moderately obese people die up to three years prematurely.

The World Health Organization estimates that 1.3 billion adults worldwide are overweight, and 600 million more are obese. The associations of both overweight and obesity with higher all-cause mortality were broadly consistent in all four continents. As common diseases such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer have been strongly associated to obesity, strategies to combat it are needed all around the globe.

Top Three Posts

During the last two years I uploaded 20 posts in my blog Medical News Monthly.  The top three in order of viewing frequency were:

1.     Ebola Outbreak

http://medicalnewsmonthly.blogspot.com/2014/08/ebola-outbreak.html

2.     The Mediterranean Diet

http://medicalnewsmonthly.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-mediterranean-diet.html

3.     WHO Report on Antimicrobial Resistance

http://medicalnewsmonthly.blogspot.com/2014/05/who-report-on-antimicrobial-resistance.html

Most of the visitors were from the United States, followed by Greece, Russia, France, Macedonia, Poland, Ireland, Ukraine, Germany, Switzerland and India in that order.

WHO Report on Antimicrobial Resistance

On April 30, 2014 the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that antimicrobial resistance is happening in every region of the world and considers it a major threat to public health.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) threatens the effective prevention and treatment of an ever-increasing range of infections caused by bacteria, parasites, viruses and fungi. A “post-antibiotic era”, where common infections and minor injuries could kill, is a real possibility for the 21st Century.

The report focuses on antibiotic resistance in seven different bacteria which are responsible for common but serious diseases, including but not limited to sepsis, pneumonia, and gonorrhea. It emphasizes that resistance to common bacteria has reached alarming levels in many parts of the world, and that the surveillance of this resistance is neither coordinated nor harmonized.  While some countries have taken important steps in addressing the problem, the report suggests every country and individual needs to do more; including taking important actions to prevent infections from happening in the first place. 

Fortunately, the WHO provides information on how individuals can help tackle resistance by. Antibiotics should only be used when prescribed by a physician,and users should complete the full prescription and never share with others.  It strongly suggests to physicians and pharmacists to only prescribe and dispense the correct antibiotic when they are truly needed, and to enhance prevention and control instead.  Policymakers and industry can help tackle resistance by fostering innovation and research, and by advocating cooperation among governments, especially on surveillance that generates reliable data.

The World Health Organization's recent report is not the first mention of this developing situation. In September 2013, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned of ‘potentially catastrophic consequences’ of drug-resistant microorganisms.  The

CDC estimates that in the United States more than two million people are sickened every year and at least 23,000 are dying as a result.

The report–which also includes information on resistance to medicines for treating other infections such as HIV, malaria, tuberculosis and influenza–provides the most comprehensive picture of drug resistance to date, incorporating data from 114 countries.

Update September 19, 2014:  John Holdren, President Obama’s chief science adviser, called "the problem of antibiotic resistance a potential threat to the nation and the world” that poses “a serious domestic and international challenge to human and animal health, national security and the economy.” At a news conference, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Thomas Frieden, MD, MPH pointed out that antibiotic resistance “is connected to at least 23,000 deaths and two million illnesses each year.”