OBESITY: DEVELOPMENT, EPIDEMIOLOGY, FACTORS AFFECTING, QUANTITY, HEALTH HAZARDS, MANAGEMENT AND NATURAL TREATMENT-A REVIEW

Abstract

<p>Due to the advancement in science, enhanced knowledge on the physiological aspects of almost all the tissues and the organs of the human body is gained. One of the most important prevalent topics needed for discussion is obesity and its effect on the metabolic changes leading to disorders in the human body such as diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases in addition to chronic diseases such as stroke, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, some cancers, and inflammation-based pathologies. In recent years, obesity is a serious socioeconomic issue, which has become one of the major health problems all over the world, affecting people of all ages, sex, ethnicities and races. Obesity is a complex and multifactorial disease caused by the interaction of a myriad genetics, dietary, lifestyle and environmental factors and it is characterised by an excessive weight for height due to an enlarged fat deposition in the adipose tissue, which is due to a higher calorie intake than the energy expenditure. The pharmaceutical drugs are currently available to treat obesity but generally they have unpleasant side effects. Recent researches demonstrated the potential of natural products to counteract on obesity. Now the novel promising approach is the usage of dietary supplements and plant products and their bioactive compounds that could interfere on pancreatic lipase activity, food intake, lipid metabolism and adipocyte differentiation. In a similar way, hundreds of extracts are currently being isolated from plants, fungi, algae or bacteria and are screened for their potential inhibitions of activity against obesity. Natural products may have a synergistic activity that increases their bioavailability and action on multiple molecular targets.</p>