On the pathogenesis of obesity: causal models and missing pieces of the puzzle.

Application of the physical laws of energy and mass conservation at the whole-body level is not necessarily informative about causal mechanisms of weight gain and the development of obesity. The energy balance model (EBM) and the carbohydrate-insulin model (CIM) are two plausible theories, among several others, attempting to explain why obesity develops within an overall common physiological framework of regulation of human energy metabolism. These models have been used to explain the pathogenesis of obesity in individuals as well as the dramatic increases in the prevalence of obesity worldwide over the past half century.

Trapped fat: Obesity pathogenesis as an intrinsic disorder in metabolic fuel partitioning.

Our understanding of the pathophysiology of obesity remains at best incomplete despite a century of research. During this time, two alternative perspectives have helped shape thinking about the etiology of the disorder. The currently prevailing view holds that excessive fat accumulation results because energy intake exceeds energy expenditure, with excessive food consumption being the primary cause of the imbalance.

The interplay between birth weight and obesity in determining childhood and adolescent cardiometabolic risk.

Background: Birth weight (BW) is associated with risk of cardiometabolic disease (CMD) in adulthood, which may depend on the state of obesity, in particular if developed at a young age. We hypothesised that BW and a polygenic score (PGS) for BW were associated with cardiometabolic risk and related plasma protein levels in children and adolescents. We aimed to determine the modifying effect of childhood obesity on these associations.

The impact of surgery and oncological treatment on risk of type 2 diabetes onset in patients with colorectal cancer: nationwide cohort study in Denmark.

Background: Comorbidity with type 2 diabetes (T2D) results in worsening of cancer-specific and overall prognosis in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. The treatment of CRC per se may be diabetogenic. We assessed the impact of different types of surgical cancer resections and oncological treatment on risk of T2D development in CRC patients.

Childhood adversity trajectories and weight status in young adult men: a register-based study including 359,783 Danish men.

Background: Childhood adversity has previously been associated with overweight and obesity in adult life, but there is a need for larger population-based studies using prospectively obtained adversity trajectories across childhood to confirm these associations. Moreover, childhood adversity may also be associated with underweight, which is less often studied. The aim of the current study is to investigate the association between childhood adversity trajectories from 0-15 years with weight categories in young adult men.

Maternal obesity, interpregnancy weight changes and congenital heart defects in the offspring: a nationwide cohort study.

Objective: To evaluate the association between maternal BMI and congenital heart defects (CHDs) in the offspring when including live births, stillbirths, aborted and terminated pregnancies and to investigate if maternal interpregnancy weight changes between the first and second pregnancy influences the risk of foetal CHDs.

Methods: A nationwide cohort study of all singleton pregnancies in Denmark from 2008 to 2018. Data were retrieved from the Danish Foetal Medicine Database, which included both pre- and postnatal diagnoses of CHDs.

Self-reported and tracked nighttime smartphone use and their association with overweight and cardiometabolic risk markers.

Nighttime smartphone use is associated with sleep problems, which in turn have a bidirectional association with overweight. We aim to investigate whether nighttime smartphone use and sleep are related to overweight and metabolic dysfunction in adult populations. We used data from three population samples (aged 16-89) from the SmartSleep Study, which included survey data (N = 29,838), high-resolution tracking data (N = 3446), follow-up data (N = 1768), and cardiometabolic risk markers (N = 242).

Body weight in childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood in relation to later risk of disabilities and early retirement among Danish female nurses.

Background: Obesity is now the most common health problem in the younger population in Western societies and obesity rates are higher in lower socioeconomic status (SES) groups. We investigated whether overweight in childhood, independently of overweight in adulthood, influenced adult employment status and later risk of having disabilities. Using data from the Danish Female Nurse Cohort study, we examined associations between overweight in childhood/adolescence, and young adulthood and disabilities and early retirement in later adulthood (>44 years) and whether it was influenced by menopausal age ( View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Integrating multiple lines of evidence to assess the effects of maternal BMI on pregnancy and perinatal outcomes.

Background: Higher maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) is associated with adverse pregnancy and perinatal outcomes. However, whether these associations are causal remains unclear.

Methods: We explored the relation of maternal pre-/early-pregnancy BMI with 20 pregnancy and perinatal outcomes by integrating evidence from three different approaches (i.

Change in abdominal obesity after colon cancer surgery - effects of left-sided and right-sided colonic resection.

Background: Excess abdominal visceral adipose tissue (VAT) is associated with metabolic diseases and poor survival in colon cancer (CC). We assessed the impact of different types of CC surgery on changes in abdominal fat depots.

Material And Methods: Computed tomography (CT)-scans performed preoperative and 3 years after CC surgery were analyzed at L3-level for VAT, subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) and total adipose tissue (TAT) areas.

Altered Glucagon and GLP-1 Responses to Oral Glucose in Children and Adolescents With Obesity and Insulin Resistance.

Context: Pediatric obesity is characterized by insulin resistance, yet it remains unclear whether insulin resistance contributes to abnormalities in glucagon and incretin secretion.

Objective: To examine whether fasting and stimulated glucagon, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) concentrations differ between children and adolescents with obesity and insulin resistance (OIR), obesity and normal insulin sensitivity (OIS), and controls with normal weight (NW).

Methods: 80 (34 boys) children and adolescents, aged 7-17 years with OIR (n = 22), OIS (n = 22), and NW (n = 36) underwent an oral glucose tolerance test with measurements of serum insulin, plasma glucose, glucagon, total GLP-1, and total GIP.

Child-to-adult body size change and risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Aims/hypothesis: Childhood overweight increases the risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease in adulthood. However, the impact of childhood leanness on adult obesity and disease risk has been overlooked. We examined the independent and combined influences of child and adult body size on the risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Changes in weight status during the COVID-19 pandemic: impact of educational level and mental health.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a disruption of daily routines and changes in health behaviors leading to widespread concerns about unfavorable changes in weight status and a potential increase in the prevalence of obesity. This study examined the long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on changes in weight status and its possible dependency on educational level and mental health.

Methods: The study utilizes the Danish Health and Well-being Survey with repeated self-reported information on weight status collected before the COVID-19 pandemic (autumn of 2019) and twice during the pandemic (autumns of 2020 and 2021).

Emergence of the obesity epidemic preceding the presumed obesogenic transformation of the society.

The obesity epidemic, evolving in many countries since the 1970s, has been attributed to the widespread contemporary so-called obesogenic transformation of the societies, but what preceded the epidemic? Using quantile regression, we studied the trends by year of birth in the percentile distribution of body mass index (BMI = weight/height) of 320,962 Danish school children, born from 1930 to 1976, and of 205,153 Danish young conscripts, born from 1939 to 1959. The overall trend of the percentiles of the BMI distributions were found to be linear across the years of birth. While the percentiles below the 75th were almost stable, those above showed a steadily steeper rise the more extreme the percentile among both school children and young men is.

Unanswered questions about the causes of obesity.

Obesity is now a global pandemic, but there is little consensus about the causes.

Early childhood adversity and body mass index in childhood and adolescence: linking registry data on adversities with school health records of 53,401 children from Copenhagen.

Objective: We examined whether childhood adversity experienced in early childhood (0-5 years) is related to body mass index (BMI) in childhood (6-7 years) and adolescence (12-15 years).

Methods: This study combined data from the nationwide register-based DANLIFE study on childhood adversities with data on height and weight of school children in Copenhagen. Data were available for 53,401 children born in Denmark between 1980 and 1996.

Overweight, Weight Loss, and Self-Reported Global Life Satisfaction: The Lolland-Falster Health Study.

Introduction: Obesity is associated with reduced quality of life and reduced life satisfaction, but does weight loss make you happier? The objective of this study was to investigate if body mass index (BMI) is associated with self-reported global life satisfaction, and if weight loss among individuals with overweight is associated with a higher life satisfaction than among weight-stable individuals with overweight.

Methods: The participants in the present population-based cohort study from Denmark were 15,213 adults (18 years or older) in the Lolland-Falster Health Study who reported their global life satisfaction with the Cantril Ladder Score (CLS) (scores range from 0, very poor, through 10, very good). The association of BMI and history of weight loss with CLS was assessed by multivariable analyses adjusted for sex, age, educational level, cohabitation, self-reported health, and smoking status.

An adiposity force induces obesity in humans independently of a normal energy balance system-a thought experiment.

Obesity in humans represents a cumulative retention of a tiny fraction of total energy intake as fat, which is accompanied by growth of the metabolically active, energy-demanding, lean body mass. Since the energy balance regulation operates irrespective of the excess fat storage, availability of the required energy supplies is a permissive condition for obesity development. It occurs predominantly among people genetically predisposed and/or living with social or mental challenges.