Review of literature: Etiology of obesity, risk factors, and the role of genetics

Abstract

Obesity is considered one of the global most significant public problem as it has been associated with different diseases and even death. It is an excess accumulation of fat in the body as a result of increase calorie intake compared to energy expenditure. It is considered as multifactorial condition as many factors play role in its occurrence including genetic susceptibility, external environmental factors, individual attitude. The exact etiology of obesity is intermingled with different factors and nowadays because of development of different aspects of life, sedentary life style dominates the social communities, reduced physical activities, all these factors can enhance the risk of obesity. Furthermore, disturbances of the endocrine system like Cushing’s syndrome, hypothyroidism, diabetes type II. The genetic obesity it will be divided into two groups: 1) The monogenic type, the Poly genic type, syndrome associated obesity. Many individuals are suffering from obesity because of different genes that they already have which encourage them to high calorie diet with more food consumption, unlimited and uncontrolled food intake together with reduced physical activity. In conclusion the etiology, risk factors, as well as genetic susceptibility all are combined and correlated to each other as they may act separately or together to induce onset of obesity. The physical exercise and energy expenditure are having the key role., in addition to endocrine hormonal disturbances.