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CIHR on Parade
Cardiovascular disease and diabetes have long been spotlighted when it comes to discussion and evaluation of the diseases linked to obesity. Recently, the Heart and Stroke Foundation stated that obesity is "the new tobacco" in terms of being a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease.
In March it was the Canadian Liver Foundation (CLF) that demanded the floor. Its liver-disease awareness campaign cited fat as the leading contributor to liver disease, highlighting the fact that there are other organs prone to disease caused by excess fat. CLF points out that 75% of Canadians have excess fat upon their liver, and that 23% of obese Canadians are at risk for developing serious liver damage from fatty liver disease. Liver disease ranks as the fourth-leading cause of disease-related death in Canada.
As enlightening as this may be to the public, it all comes as no surprise to health care professionals, who have long recognized obesity as the harbinger of various forms of ill health. At its very inception, stakeholders of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) Institute for Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes (INMD), including various health agencies, nongovernmental health associations, interest groups, academics and many others, overwhelmingly identified obesity and unhealthy body weight as the primary health problem requiring immediate attention.
"That's different from other institutes. We picked a single priority," says Dr. Diane Finegood, INMD's scientific director. "All the other institutes had multiple priorities that came out of the work they did in the first year or two for their strategic plans."
For the INMD, picking a priority was easy. Obesity is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, liver disease and cancer: all major illnesses with high cost to the health care system.
The word "pandemic" is increasingly used to describe the growing numbers of people worldwide with wider girths. Close to half of Canadians are overweight, and 1 in 6 qualifies as obese. Between 1981 and 1996, the prevalence of obesity jumped from 9% to 14% in men and from 8% to 12% in women. Studies have shown that being overweight as an adult is associated with a great increase in early...