Metabolic disorders

CAPE TOWN: Are you suffering from Type 1 diabetes? You better watch that weight around your waist. Researchers from the University of Washington, Seattle, have found that adults with Type 1 diabetes who are obese, especially those who carry excess weight around the waist, are at an increased risk of developing kidney disease.

PARIS For every four adults in the world who are malnourished five more are overweight, 30% of them clinically obese, according to the World Health Organization.

Shocking medical statistics should put all parents on high alert about how they are raising their children. Diets rich in junk food and sugar, television-centred lifestyles and a fear of crime in public spaces like parks are turning children and adults into overweight and highly unhealthy people.

Overweight and obese mums-to-be are putting their health and the health of their unborn infant at risk - as well as putting a strain on the health service!

South Africans are getting heavier as they take after the Western world in diet and lack of exercise. This was one of the conclusions in a report presented by the Medical Research Council (MRC) on Wednesday.

A new pandemic of obesity and the accompanying non-communicable diseases has created a double disease burden on the health services of many resource-poor countries, where the challenge of infectious diseases like HIV and TB has far from disappeared.

Obesity is out of control with more than 300 million overweight adults worldwide, according to specialists at the first international obesity conference in Africa.

The state is unleashing a major new offensive in the war on fat as perceptions that slim people are associated with HIV and AIDS makes the battle against obesity even harder.

The World Health Organisation has revealed that more women than men die of heart disease and strokes. The largest-ever global study on heart disease, released last week, found that more than half (8.6 million) of the 16.5 million of those who die worldwide of heart disease every year are women. The Heart Foundation of South Africa said local data confirmed this alarming trend. South Africa was not one of the 21 countries that participated in the 10-year study. Heart attacks have long been seen as a risk to men, but in South Africa rising rates of obesity and smoking among women have placed them, too, in the danger zone - with most women un aware of this. University of Natal professor Yackoob Seedat, an expert in cardiac disease patterns, said rising obesity in South Africa was contributing to heart disease. Almost twice as many women (56.6%) as men (29.2%) are overweight - and South Africa has a higher ratio of overweight women than the US, according to the Heart Foundation. It also reports that a high percentage of the country's seven million smokers are women. Seedat said hormone replacement therapy did not protect older women from the increased risk. Instead, it was associated with a high incidence of heart attacks and breast cancer. He said post-menopausal women were also affected by rising cholesterol levels, and older women by rising blood pressure. Both conditions predisposed them to heart disease. (Source: Claire Keeton, The Sunday Times, 28 September 2003) //\//LInk MONItoring CArdiovascular disease Monograph The launch of the MONICA (MONItoring CArdiovascular disease) Monograph culminates a major research project, conceived in 1979, in which teams from 38 populations in 21 countries studied heart disease, stroke and risk factors from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, the largest such collaboration ever undertaken. The publication is designed to appeal to both professional and lay audiences. It also includes all the MONICA documents, methods and results in two CD-ROMs. For more information contact: Mr David Porter Telephone: +41 (22) 791 3774 Mobile phone: +41 (79) 477 1740 Email: porterd@who.int WHO web site http://www.who.int

While malnutrition is considered one of the greatest risks to the well being of South Africa's children, growing numbers of obese or overweight youngsters could have a greater part in threatening the country's future health. Dr Tessa van der Merwe, senior consultant physician/endocrinologist at Johannesburg General Hospital and the Witwatersrand University said a quarter of South Africa's 12 to 18 year olds classified as overweight or obese would have a catastrophic impact on future national health. Van der Merwe said that the increasing prevalence of obesity among South African children would force the government to formalise a policy on the management of overweight and obesity. According to an October 1998 national demographic and health survey conducted by the Medical Research Council, the trend towards greater percentages of obesity and overweight in young females continues in adulthood. Black women have the highest incidence of obesity among males and females, at 30 percent, followed closely by white women at 26,3 percent; coloured women at 25,3 percent and Indian women at 21 percent. White South African men scored the highest on the male obesity scale at 19,8 percent followed by coloured men (10 percent), black men (nine percent) and Indian men (8,6 percent). (Source: The Star, 15 January 2002)