Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis and Treatment of Obesity in Young People Today

Abstract

This paper provides information about the causes, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment methods of adolescent obesity in the modern era. In the modern world, more people die from the consequences of overweight and obesity than from the consequences of underweight (official website of the World Health Organization) [1]. The global obesity epidemic continues to gain momentum, currently affecting more than two billion people - about a quarter of the world's population. In 2017, the Global Burden of Disease Group stated: "Since 1980, the number of people with obesity has doubled in more than 70 countries and is steadily increasing in all remaining countries" [2]. UNICEF reported in 2017 that over the past 15 years, there has been no progress in reducing the number of children and adolescents with overweight and obesity [3]. According to leading experts in this field, if the trend of the 2000s continues, the likelihood of achieving the goal of halving the total number of obese people by 2025 is close to zero [4]. It is safe to say that humanity is currently losing the war on obesity. Russian and international databases were used to search for articles: RSCI, PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus and Google Scholar. The search was conducted using the keywords: obesity, globesity, normal-weight obesity, BMI, obesity, obesity epidemic, hidden obesity, BMI. The analysis included original studies and review articles published since 2018 to 2023 in English or Russian. Only full-text versions of articles were used. In 1988, the WHO reported on the problem of obesity as a global phenomenon, and for the first time, the conclusion about the obesity epidemic in the world was voiced [3]. Since then, the term "obesity epidemic or pandemic" has firmly entered into scientific circulation, reports of official bodies and the media. However, it is unclear whether the word "epidemic" defines what we observe in the modern human population. An epidemic begins with an outbreak of a disease, passes a peak, then there is a decline, and eventually it ends, as all susceptible individuals either recover or die. Instead of a sharp outbreak of the "disease" of obesity, we observe a constant and steady increase in the proportion of people with a high body mass index (BMI). Historical evidence from epidemiological studies allows us to conclude that the increase in BMI in the human population has been occurring over the past 300 years. American economist Robert Fogel has studied the relationship between body size and labor productivity since the early 18th century [12]. Using data on the length and weight of residents of the most economically developed countries (Scandinavian countries, France, Great Britain) from 1705 to 1975, Fogel showed that in 1705 the average BMI in these populations was 19 kg/m2, which is below the WHO recommended ideal BMI value of 22 kg/m2. Over the next three centuries, BMI gradually increased, reflecting the increase in average population values of length and weight, and by 1975 it was 25 kg/m2. After reaching the upper limit of normal values, BMI in many developed countries continued to increase and by 2014 in the United States it was 27.8 kg/m2. It is suggested that the observed increase in BMI is not an epidemic, but a natural result of biological processes to increase body size in order to protect against hunger and improve efficiency in various conflicts, including military ones. Simultaneously with the continuing weight gain, a slowdown or complete stop in the increase in body length in modern humans is recorded.