According to the World Health Organization (WHO) obesity
is defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation, caused by factors such as
genetic inheritance; the behavior of the nervous, endocrine system. Altogether,there are two main causes: Higher intake of calories than the body uses and/orless physical activity than the body needs. It has been established that men
with more than 25% body fat and women with more than 35% body fat are obese.
According to the aforementioned criterion it has been reported that around the
world there are 300 million obese people.
Fat tissue produces bioactive proteins known as
adipocytokines as epidermal growth factor that binds heparin (HB-EGF), leptin,
Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha (TNF-a), the inhibitor of Plasminogen Activator-1
(PAI-1), resistin and adiponectin. The expression of these adipocytokines(except adiponectin) increases with the accumulation of visceral fat and
contribute to the development of chronic diseases such as heart disease,
diabetes, hypertension, cerebrovascular events, kidney failure and some forms of
cáncer.
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