ACCORDING to wikipaedia an online free encyclopedia pot belly or beer belly is also called central obesity. The main cause of central obesity are over eating and sedentary lifestyle.

Speaking in an interview with Champion Health, the Medical Director, Baylod Simpson Hospital, Lagos,Dr. Joseph Obaoye Awotunde,said that obesity is attributed to excessive accumulation to body fat and is accessed clinically using a BODY MASS INDEX (BMI)

BMI=WT HEIGHT (m2)

A BMI of 30 and above is considered obese while a BMI of 25-29.9 is considered over weight.

As for the development of obesity he said, it is a chronic disease that develops over a period of time and is fuelled by certain factors via nutrition, physical activities, drugs genetic factors/influences.

Dr. Awotunde estimated that about 1.70 billion people are obese all over the world, most of these are based in developed countries of America, Europe and Asia.

He explained that obesity is always associated with non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, insulin resistance type 2 diabetes mellitus, excess fats in the heart(hypercholesterolemia)which invariably leads to CORONARY DISEASE(CHD).

The incidence and prevalence of obesity is rising prevalence in developing economic transition and transformation.

The consequence of this economic transition of transformation is the rapid unplanned urbanization resulting in westernization of diet/culture.

Thus there is a nutritional transition too with consumption of high fatty and refined foods such as in the developed world, he asserted.

According to him, complications of obesity can lead to impaired glucose tolerance as in types 2diabetes mellitus, dyslpidaemia (Bad fats) and hypercuricaemia, excess uric acid in the blood, all of which are disease conditions with negative impact on cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.

He added that obesity is also a risk factor for the development of degenerative joint diseases,incisional hernias, gall stones. In males obesity is a risk factor in prostate and colonic cancer while in the female breast, cervical and ovarian cancer.

Recognizing the burden obesity poses to medical personnel, the medical director lamented that it is an added burden to a surgeon and an anaesthetist.In obesity, oxygen consumption is increased while lung compliance is much reduced, thus there is increased work on breathing, all these putting more strains on the medical personnel during surgery of an obese patient.

Getting the veins of obese patients is a task, while it is difficult to maintain the airways of patient, getting their blood pressure is an arduous task also.

The Medical Director advised that prevention of obesity involves identification of high risk patients, screening for diabetes mellitus, hypercholestrolaemia (excess fats), hypertension, as family history of these disease.

In the view of Dr.Rosemary Peters, senior research fellow(Nutrition) at the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research,Yaba,Lagos,junk food poses serious health hazard to its consumers. She identified obesity as one common consequence of food.

According to her, obesity further exposes its victims to various other kinds of illness like cardiovascular diseases,diabetes,hypertension and high cholesterol.

Dr.Peters informed that ‘’obesity makes the body system prone to various types of diseases like the ones I have earlier mentioned.’’

Dr. Akin Akinmokun,endocrinologist,who has over 28 years of experience said ‘’Obesity, he said is a precursor of many other diseases such as diabetes,hypertension,arthritis and leading to people being prone to accidents. And one of the causes of sudden death according to him is cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack. Obesity is a risk factor in all of these. People who are obese run the risk of sudden death because on their effect of cardiovascular system, he said.

The endocrinologist advised that people should be aware that reducing weight and maintaining it at acceptable norm is important ,while eating healthy should be the watch word. To him, prevention is better than cure because it is better not to put on excessive weight than attempting to loose their weight because it is not usually easy to loose weight.

According to Monash University, Centre for obesity research and education, U.S.A. Primary Prevention of obesity

Thus, it is important to establish an advocacy for the range of initiatives required to combat the obesity epidemic.