Treatment of obesity. Why a „strong will” is not enough? Part I: Causes of obesity

Abstract

A lot of attention is paid in the research to the subject of obesity, due to growing number of obese people worldwide. It would seem that the causes of this phenomenon has been widely described, however, new reports are published and hardly explored hypotheses are being developed. The goal of the first part of the article is to present current state of knowledge about pathogenesis of obesity. The causes of obesity include genetical, epigenetic and environmental factors – both nutritional and non-nutritional. There are several hundred genes known so far related to the progression of obesity, numerous chemical substances that disturb the processes of energy balance and metabolism of adipose tissues and micro-organisms that may contribute to progression of obesity. Nevertheless, from statistical point of view, the most significant pathogenic factor probably is unlimited access to obesogenic food, characteristic of people from highly developed countries.