Obesity’s Impact on Health: It’s Not Just About the Weight

Obesity in Companion Animals

Obesity is a common nutritional disorder in dogs and cats. Although reports vary on the prevalence of the disease it has been shown that greater than 35% of adult cats in the USA are considered overweight or obese. In addition, 45% of the cats aged 10-11 were considered overweight or obese. Studies investigating the prevalence of overweight and obesity in dogs have varied from 24% to 34%. As in humans, obesity in dogs and cats has been linked with increased risk for other diseases such as diabetes, pancreatitis, arthritis, heart disease, respiratory distress, high blood pressure and reduced immune function. The relationship of obesity to other diseases is complicated and only recently has it received recognition as a key factor to overall health.

Obesity-Related Diseases

The application of genomic technologies has enabled scientists to begin to understand the underlying biochemical mechanisms that link obesity to other diseases. By comparing the gene expression profiles of adipose tissues and lymphocytes obtained from obese and lean dogs and cats, scientists have begun to understand the key biochemical differences resulting from obesity. The genomic findings not only provide key insights into differences in metabolic activities that drive or are a result of obesity, they are beginning to provide an understanding of the link between obesity and the increased risk for developing obesity-related diseases.

The ability to apply large-scale genomic approaches to investigate obesity has clearly demonstrated that obesity is not just a weight issue, it’s a health issue. The biochemical changes that occur in adipocytes of obese animals influence expression of many key metabolic and regulatory genes that ultimately affect the body systemically. Although weight loss can influence many of the changes that occur with obesity, nutrigenomics approaches toward understanding obesity demonstrate that nutrition plays an important role in reversing many of the underlying mechanisms which link obesity to other diseases.