[Therapeutic options and expectations in obesity]

Abstract

Obesity is now the more prevalent nutritional disease in the world. Mainly related to the evolution of life style, in particular sedentary, food availability and palatability and eating disorders, this disease is also dependent on psychological and environmental factors together with biological (genetic or not) determinants. Obesity includes a great variety of clinical, pathophysiological situations. This nutritional disease results from a long term, chronic, autoaggravating process. Complications related to the excess of adipose mass accumulation are metabolic, mechanic and cellular. The clinician task is to analyse in a given subject the relative influence of the pathophysiological factors, the predominant and more severe complications to adapt a tailored medical strategy.