Abdominal Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes

The “Diabesity” Epidemic

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As a health hazard, obesity has been linked to numerous metabolic complications such as dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease (CVD) (1). The number of overweight or obese individuals is fast increasing worldwide, and this increase has meant a concomitant rise in the prevalence of type 2 diabetes (2). With type 2 diabetes reaching epidemic proportions, the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) has predicted that the number of individuals with diabetes may rise to almost 333 million by 2025 (3). For this reason, the World Health Organization (WHO) has called obesity and diabetes the “21st century epidemic” (4). The term “diabesity” has been coined (5, 6) to emphasize the close relationship between these two diseases. Indeed, obesity and type 2 diabetes frequently occur together, and the vast majority of type 2 diabetic individuals are or have been obese (7, 8). Along with genetic susceptibility, obesity is the most important risk factor for type 2 diabetes (9, 10). The term “diabesity” singles out excess body weight as the major cause of type 2 diabetes (5).

Reference

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1. Bray GA, Bouchard C and James WPT, eds. Handbook of obesity. New York: Marcel Dekker. 1998.

2. Ford ES, Williamson DF and Liu S. Weight change and diabetes incidence: findings from a national cohort of US adults. Am J Epidemiol 1997; 146: 214-22.

3. IDF. Diabetes prevalence http://wwwidforg/home/indexcfm?node=264. 2003, last accessed in August 2007.

4. World Health Organization, Obesity and overweight. Facts. World Health Oranization. Available at: http://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/media/en/gsfs_obesity.pdf. 2004.

5. Astrup A and Finer N. Redefining type 2 diabetes: 'diabesity' or 'obesity dependent diabetes mellitus'? Obes Rev 2000; 1: 57-9.

6. Shafrir E. Development and consequences of insulin resistance: lessons from animals with hyperinsulinaemia. Diabetes Metab 1996; 22: 122-31.

7. Stumvoll M, Goldstein BJ and van Haeften TW. Type 2 diabetes: principles of pathogenesis and therapy. Lancet 2005; 365: 1333-46.

8. Halpern A and Mancini MC. Diabesity: are weight loss medications effective? Treat Endocrinol 2005; 4: 65-74.

9. Scheen AJ. Pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes. In: Kuhlman J, Puls W, eds, Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, Oral Antidiabetics (Springer Verlag: Berlin) 1996; 7-42.

10. DeFronzo RA. Pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes: metabolic and molecular implications for identifying diabetes genes. Diabetes Rev 1997; 5: 177-269.

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