Obesity kills at least four million people every year

By Gwyn Wright via SWNS

More than four million people die of obesity every year, according to a new study.

Scientists from the US and Greece believe new gut treatments and gene therapy are not being used enough to reduce the shocking toll.

They say doctors are not giving out enough weight loss medications, and stigma means patients do not come forward until they are dangerously overweight, despite the fact half of American adults and 20 percent of children are obese.

Health insurance in the US is often too expensive, they add.

New medicines being tested, which combine different gastrointestinal hormones, are expected to help people lose weight in the future- when combined with regular exercise.

Vaccines and new drug delivery systems are needed to beat the epidemic.

Existing drug semaglutide can cut people’s weight by 15 percent when combined with regular exercise and has few side effects.

Bariatric surgery can lead people to shed 40 percent of their body mass but it is invasive and associated with side effects.

Dr. Christos Mantzoros, of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, US, said: “Obesity is the epidemic crisis of our time.

“The disease leads to serious comorbidities such as diabetes, fatty liver disease and cardiovascular disease and significantly shortens a person's length and quality of life."

“Until recently we did not understand the genetic and hormonal causes of obesity and how it leads to these comorbidities.

“We have recently started to understand the causes of obesity in humans, which is a big discovery that has led to diagnosing effective therapies.”

The research was carried out by experts from the Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Centre, Harvard Medical School and Alexander Kokkinos and Chrysi Koliaki of Laiko General Hospital in Athens, Greece.

It was published online by the journal Endocrine Reviews.