JAKARTA - Recent research shows that losing weight plays a big role in preventing various chronic diseases that often appear together. For the first time, researchers have managed to measure in detail how obesity is a common cause of many long-term health conditions.
It has been known that several diseases are often experienced by the same person. These conditions are suspected to have the same root cause, an important thing to understand for prevention and treatment. Because the relationship between diseases is quite complicated, researchers pair them one by one to make it easier to identify the same cause factor.
The results found obesity as the main cause linking ten common pairs of diseases that occur together.
In a large-scale study published in the journal Communications Medicine (Nature), a team led by the University of Exeter Medical School examined 71 health conditions that often appear together. For example, type 2 diabetes with osteoarthritis, or kidney disease with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
The GEMINI study was funded by the UKRI Medical Research Council and supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The researchers used genetic data and health service data from a number of large databases in a number of countries.
Of the 71 conditions, obesity was shown to play a role in causing 61 of them. In ten pairs of diseases, obesity explained all of the common genetic factors they shared, meaning obesity was a major driver of why the diseases often appeared together.
Body mass index (BMI) is a measure used to assess body weight based on height. BMI above 30 is classified as obese, while below 25 is considered normal. Researchers calculated how much a decrease in BMI can reduce a person's risk of experiencing two diseases at once. The results are quite significant.
For example, for every 1,000 people at risk of chronic kidney disease and osteoarthritis, a 4.5-point decrease in BMI is estimated to prevent 17 people from developing both diseases. In a couple of type 2 diabetes and osteoarthritis, the same BMI reduction can prevent about 9 cases per 1,000 people.
The research team also identified disease pairs that are not primarily caused by obesity, and is now investigating other possible mechanisms involved.
Professor Jack Bowden, lead author of the study from the University of Exeter Medical School said the research gives a much more detailed picture of the link between obesity and various diseases.
"We have known for a long time that some diseases often occur together, and obesity increases the risk of many diseases. However, this large-scale study is the first to use genetic data to actually measure the role of obesity in causing these diseases to occur in the same person," he said, quoted from the news-medical.net page.
According to him, in some pairs of diseases, obesity has proven to be the main driving factor. These findings are expected to help medical personnel provide more targeted advice to patients.
Meanwhile, Professor Jane Masoli, consultant geriatrician and researcher from the same university, added that currently around nine million people in the UK live with two or more long-term illnesses.
"Understanding how to prevent disease accumulation is an important priority in national health research and services. This study further strengthens the importance of tackling obesity through public health programs, as well as lifelong weight management in NHS prevention strategies," he explained.
He emphasized that this effort has the potential to reduce the risk of a person experiencing many diseases at once, thus helping people live longer and healthier.
This study is part of the GEMINI (Genetic Evaluation of Multimorbidity towards Individualisation of Interventions) collaboration led by the University of Exeter. The program involves patients with various chronic diseases, health workers including from primary services, as well as experts in statistics and genetics.
Currently, the GEMINI team continues to investigate why some diseases more often appear together in the same patient. They also study other modifiable risk factors other than obesity, as well as looking for new genes and biological pathways that could open up opportunities for future health interventions.
With this finding, the main message is clearer. Maintaining a healthy body weight is not only about appearance, but also an important step to prevent many serious diseases at once.
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