Abstract
Obesity is a complex, increasingly prevalent, and important health problem throughout the world. Human obesity is characterized by increased adipose tissue mass resulting from a complex interaction of genetic predisposition to metabolic efficiency and environmental/lifestyle factors. Recent studies have clearly demonstrated that obesity is a disease with a strong biological basis. Although treatment (e.g., healthy eating (including behavioral modification), physical activity, drugs) is available and most people can achieve medically significant weight loss (5%-10% of initial body weight), the long-term maintenance of that weight loss and its associated improvement in health is, unfortunately, very rare. However, an explosion of new scientific information concerning the regulation of energy balance and fat mass at several levels has occurred since the discovery of OB protein (also known as leptin). The recent identification of obesity-associated genes and gene products in mice and humans has provided new pathways involved in obesity. This new understanding of the regulation of energy balance has revealed, and will continue to reveal, additional targets for pharmacological intervention that will certainly lead, with a little luck, to innovative medicines to treat obesity. New drugs will be viewed as adjuncts to behavioral and lifestyle change to maintain weight loss and its associated increases in metabolic fitness.
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Campfield, L.A., Smith, F.J. (2000). Pharmacological Treatment of Obesity: Outcomes and New Tools. In: Lockwood, D.H., Heffner, T.C. (eds) Obesity: Pathology and Therapy. Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, vol 149. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-59651-3_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-59651-3_8
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