The Health Effects of Obesity

Obesity exerts widespread effects on health and well-being through a combination of the physical or biomechanical forces related to excess fat mass and the physiologic or endocrine actions of various adipose tissue depots. This chapter will describe how obesity impacts survival, and then provide an overview of the co-morbidities that are responsible for the vast majority of obesity-related mortality, namely cardiovascular, respiratory and oncologic conditions. The effect of obesity on other organ systems will be briefly reviewed followed by a discussion of how obesity impacts special clinical populations.