U.S. Food and Drug Administration
FDA Consumer magazine
January-February 2002
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The after-effects of holiday parties, family gatherings, and too much food and drink are beginning to show on some of us. And health clubs nationwide are gearing up for the annual influx of new members determined to jog, lift and spin off those added pounds.
New Year's resolutions and good intentions notwithstanding, excess weight and inactivity are responsible for hundreds of thousands of premature deaths each year. In fact, a recent study in the British journal Public Health suggests that obese adults are nearly twice as likely to have a chronic illness than adults of normal weight and that obesity is a greater risk factor for chronic illness than either smoking or drinking alcohol.
Obesity in America has risen at an epidemic rate over the past two decades. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 35 percent of the adult U.S. population (ages 20 to 74) is overweight. In that same population, the number of obese people--those who have an excessively high amount of body fat in relation to lean body mass--nearly doubled from about 15 percent in 1980 to an estimated 27 percent in 1999.
Reversing these trends is a priority among many concerned with public health, including governmental, voluntary and private organizations. In fact, U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher has prepared a national action plan to battle overweight and obesity. One of the objectives of the national Healthy People 2010 initiative is to reduce the prevalence of obesity among U.S. adults to 15 percent. That will not be easy. Recent studies indicate that the situation is getting worse.
For more, including the latest research on how to safely lose weight and keep it off, see our cover story this month, "Losing Weight: More than Counting Calories."
Ever wonder why drugs such as Baycol, a cholesterol-lowering drug, and Lotronex, used as a treatment for irritable bowel syndrome, get pulled from the marketplace? And just what does "safe" mean when used in the context of FDA approval of a compound? FDA experts explain the process in our article titled "Why Drugs Get Pulled Off the Market."
Diabetes is often called a "silent killer." It's the leading cause of kidney failure (end-stage renal disease) and of new cases of blindness among Americans ages 20 to 74. Diabetes, which has no cure, is the sixth-leading cause of death by disease in the United States. Find out more about this chronic condition that is affecting more and more Americans each year in our piece titled "Diabetes--A Growing Health Concern."
The FDA Consumer staff wishes you a happy and healthy New Year!
Raymond Formanek Jr.
Editor
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