Obesity is a disease that includes getting extra body fat which raises the likelihood of other health conditions. It happens when the body mass index, or BMI, of an individual is greater than 30. In America, though, it is a large business. it is an almost two trillion dollars-a-year business.
Chronic disease-driven obesity in the United States accounted for nearly $500 billion in direct health care expenses, as well as another $1.25 trillion in indirect costs stemming from its toll on economic output, according to a report by the Milken Institute. In other terms, obesity takes up about 10 percent of the annual GDP.
More than 60 percent of the population aged 2 and above in the United States were deemed either obese or overweight. This amid the proliferation of a booming multi-billion-dollar weight reduction, dietary products, and wellness market, which does not appear to create much of a difference in the aggregate. It has become a source of concern for doctors that so many dollars are being plowed into an epidemic with so little return, spurring the medical science community to strive for innovative approaches to solve the collection of health issues associated with obesity.
Dr. Andrés Acosta, a soft-spoken Ecuadorian-born research physician and scientist at the world-famous Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota told The Observer that 70 percent of all persons who want and lose weight either struggle to lose some or lose it and easily get it back. From heart disease to type 2 diabetes to stroke, that has big healthcare repercussions. We should first consider that people are adding weight instead of thinking of ways to reduce weight.
This tailor-made mapping of each individual at a subcellular stage called phenotyping has allowed Acosta to construct four distinct phenotype buckets that cover 85 percent of all people suffering from obesity: Hungry Brain, Hungry Stomach, Emotional Hunger, and Slow Burn.
Hungry Brain
About a fifth of people with obesity have a neural deficiency that, when sufficiently calories have been eaten in a meal, fails to signal to the brain. This inability to perceive gratification leads those with "hungry minds" to over-eat unintentionally, so their brain does not receive signals that the meal may be over. This is also apparent in persons who need to eat huge meals to "feel bloated." Their digestive system either struggles to listen to the brain's messages that nutritional gratification has been attained, or it does not receive such signals at all.
Hungry Gut
The issue lies in the gastrointestinal system for about one third of the population with obesity. In these people, even if they could have eaten just 30 minutes ago, their stomach and gut send out signs signaling hunger between meals. This may be the case with someone eating a large meal, but in reaction to signs from their stomach that they are starving again, snacking starts soon afterwards.
Emotional Hunger
Approximately a third of adults with obesity are the root cause of their obesity by hedonic consumption. As Dr. Acosta wants to explain it these people have phenotypes that have them consume donuts when they have a bad day and offer them the temptation to eat donuts when they still have a very nice day." These are people who respond to both negative and positive feelings by using food as a reaction.
Slow Burn
The root issue is a low metabolic rate coupled with overall low activity for another quarter of adults suffering from obesity. Some entities do not burn calories as quickly as most human beings.
Here's the bad news: almost a quarter of patients with obesity suffer from phenotype profiles that have more than one of these conditions, requiring a more complex procedure.
But the good news is that the results have been nothing short of spectacular so far in clinical trials. Around 250 obese patients adopted a new analysis performed at the Mayo Clinic, half after quality of treatment, and the other half after phenotype-guided treatments. 80 percent of those adopting the phenotype driven treatments were able to lose over 10 percent of the overall body weight and hold it off for a span of 12 months, while just 30 percent were able to lose over 10 percent of their body weight and keep it off for those who tried to lose weight by conventional interventions.
Recall the word phenotype. We're likely to learn a lot more about this constantly changing field of research and medicine in the coming year.
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