Is obesity a disease or a risk factor for disease? In medical circles – and outside of them – the question is contentious, with supporters on either side. In a newly published report, the Global Commission on Clinical Obesity has strived to settle the debate, introducing a new framework that redefines obesity.
“The question of whether obesity is a disease is flawed because it presumes an implausible all-or-nothing scenario where obesity is either always a disease or never a disease,” said Professor Francesco Rubino, Commission Chair, Chair of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery at King’s College London. “Evidence, however, shows a more nuanced reality. Some individuals with obesity can maintain normal organs’ function and overall health, even long term, whereas others display signs and symptoms of severe illness here and now.”
In addition to consulting with people living with obesity, the Commission involved 56 world-leading experts from different countries with diverse healthcare systems. They came from various medical specialties, including endocrinology, internal medicine, surgery, biology, nutrition, and public health.
Obesity: Disease or risk factor? (And why it matters)
Obesity has been a known risk to health since Hippocrates’ time. Indeed, the Greek physician and teacher wrote about the dangers of eating ‘more food than the constitution will bear.’ And (probably) since then, there has been disagreement about whether obesity is a risk factor for disease or a disease in its own right.
“The reason why it has never been settled is because obesity is a spectrum,” Rubino explained. “And this idea of only a disease or only a risk factor really clashes with a reality where you can have people who have normal – preserved, normal – organ function and can go about their lives for quite some time in a pretty normal way, sometimes even for a lifetime.
