Influência genética na obesidade

Abstract

The prevalence of obesity worldwide has been an issue for several years, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2016 more than 1.9 billion individuals over 18 were overweight, of these more than 650 million were obese. Worldwide, there is a reduction in the practice of physical activity and an increase in the consumption of high energy density foods, rich in sugar and fat. Obesity is characterized as an endocrine - heterogeneous chronic metabolic disease, genetically based, mostly polygenic, triggered by environmental factors, especially overeating and sedentary lifestyle. It is estimated that genetic factors may account for 24% to 40% of the variance in BMI, as they determine differences in factors such as basal metabolism rate, response to overfeeding and others. One of them is the leptin gene, which is responsible for commands to the brain of satiety, loss of appetite and increased metabolism. Objective: to emphasize the importance of studies on obesity along with genetics, and how these two points may lead to obesity that affects a large part of the world population today. Material and methods: This is a review article, where information was collected from platforms such as Scielo, NCBI, Pubmed and Academic Google, in Portuguese and English. Conclusion: Body weight has been today an aspect of great relevance for determining an individual's health status. The growth of obesity in the population has been a concern for the entire health system, along with the whole picture of diseases that are also triggered by obesity. Studies have shown how genetics can be linked to these conditions, where these interactions can have both a hereditary character, such as alterations in isolated genes that, together with other factors such as diet and lifestyle, can trigger severe overweight conditions in individuals.