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Everything in this article seems to be fitting. There is an abundance of information on the topic of obesity, and all of the subjects that are brought up in this article seem relevant to the topic. Since I am researching the topic of childhood obesity caused by gut microbiota, I realized that the sections pertaining to "childhood obesity" and "gut bacteria" were lacking in important details and statistics. If more information was added to those sections, this article on "obesity" would be more all encompassing.

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Since this is such a broad topic, edited by many people, the article seems fairly neutral. For example, in the introduction, editors made sure to include the different standard of obesity in East Asian countries, and made sure to classify obesity as only a "disease" to certain parts of the world. Editors were very careful to be objective in this article as the topic can be seen as touchy to some.

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Obesity

Edit Introduction

For the medical journal, see Obesity (journal).

Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to an extent that it may have a negative effect on health. People are generally considered obese when their body mass index (BMI), a measurement obtained by dividing a person's weight by the square of the person's height, is over 30 kg/m²; the range 25–30 kg/m² is defined as overweight. While these are the accepted values from the World Health Organization (WHO), some East Asian countries use lower values. Obesity increases the likelihood of various diseases and conditions, particularly cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, obstructive sleep apnea, certain types of cancer, osteoarthritis, and depression.

Obesity is most commonly caused by a combination of excessive food intake, lack of physical activity, and genetic susceptibility. A few cases are caused primarily by genes, endocrine disorders, medications, or mental disorder. Obesity can also be caused in childhood through conception method, antibiotic, and viruses. The view that obese people eat little yet gain weight due to a slow metabolism is not medically supported. On average, obese people have a greater energy expenditure than their normal counterparts due to the energy required to maintain an increased body mass.

Obesity is mostly preventable through a combination of social changes and personal choices. Changes to diet and exercising are the main treatments. Diet quality can be improved by reducing the consumption of energy-dense foods, such as those high in fat or sugars, and by increasing the intake of dietary fiber. Medications can be used, along with a suitable diet, to reduce appetite or decrease fat absorption. If diet, exercise, and medication are not effective, a gastric balloon or surgery may be performed to reduce stomach volume or length of the intestines, leading to feeling full earlier or a reduced ability to absorb nutrients from food.

Obesity is a leading preventable cause of death worldwide, with increasing rates in adults and children. In 2015, 600 million adults (12%) and 100 million children were obese in 195 countries.Obesity is more common in women than men. Authorities view it as one of the most serious public health problems of the 21st century. Obesity is stigmatized in much of the modern world (particularly in the Western world), though it was seen as a symbol of wealth and fertility at other times in history and still is in some parts of the world. In 2013, the American Medical Association classified obesity as a disease.

Edit Paragraph 1 "Gut Bacteria" (ready to be edited)

See also: Infectobesity

The study of the effect of infectious agents on metabolism is still in its early stages. Gut flora has been shown to differ between lean and obese humans. There is an indication that gut flora in obese and lean individuals can affect the metabolic potential. This apparent alteration of the metabolic potential is believed to confer a greater capacity to harvest energy contributing to obesity. Whether these differences are the direct cause or the result of obesity has yet to be determined unequivocally. The use of antibiotics among children has also been associated with obesity later in life. This is because, especially at a young age, a person's gut flora plays an important role in metabolism, such as building immunity and absorbing nutrients

An association between viruses and obesity has been found in humans and several different animal species. The amount that these associations may have contributed to the rising rate of obesity is yet to be determined. In both humans and animals, the period before infancy is when the organism's intestinal microbiota is the most susceptible to change. Some experiments have been done to show that when antibiotics were administered on mice that were not yet weaned, those mice were more likely to gain weight and maintain abnormal weights. However, more studies need to be done in order to confirm this conclusion in humans because it is still unclear as to whether it is the antibiotic or the infection that it is targeting that is truly compromising the composition of the organism's microbiota.

Edit Paragraph 2 "Childhood Obesity" (ready to be edited)

The healthy BMI range varies with the age and sex of the child. Obesity in children and adolescents is defined as a BMI greater than the 95th percentile.The reference data that these percentiles are based on is from 1963 to 1994 and thus has not been affected by the recent increases in rates of obesity.Childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the 21st century, with rising rates in both the developed and the developing world. Rates of obesity in Canadian boys have increased from 11% in the 1980s to over 30% in the 1990s, while during this same time period rates increased from 4 to 14% in Brazilian children.

As with obesity in adults, many factors contribute to the rising rates of childhood obesity. Changing diet and decreasing physical activity are believed to be the two most important causes for the recent increase in the incidence of child obesity. Because childhood obesity often persists into adulthood and is associated with numerous chronic illnesses, children who are obese are often tested for hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and fatty liver disease.Treatments used in children are primarily lifestyle interventions and behavioral techniques, although efforts to increase activity in children have had little success. In the United States, medications are not FDA approved for use in this age group. Multi-component behaviour change interventions that include changes to dietary and physical activity may reduce BMI in the short term in children aged 6 to 11 years, although the benefits are small and quality of evidence is low.

A newly considered contributing factor to childhood obesity is the administration of antibiotics in early childhood. Antibiotic administration is seen to be the most statistically correlated to childhood obesity when it is done before the child is 6 months of age This is because, before 6 months of age, a child's microbiota is most susceptible to influence from outside sources. When further studies were done on this topic, results showed that any exposure to antibiotic prescription resulted in increased risk of childhood obesity by the age of four, especially if there were three or more doses prescribed. Additionally, it was found that only anti-anaerobic antibiotics were actually associated with the causation of childhood obesity by dose.

Studies focusing on the specific demographic of African-American/Dominican added the factor of Cesarean section’s effect on childhood obesity, as well as the effect of a mother’s use of antibiotics in her second to third trimester of pregnancy. The results showed that the administration of antibiotics in the mother’s second to third trimester of pregnancy (during development of the fetal intestine) causes 84% more risk of obesity, while delivery by method of Cesarean section caused 46% higher risk of obesity. A possible reason why Cesarean section could lead to higher risk of childhood obesity is because the infant's microbiota more closely resembles the composition of the mother's skin microbiota, whereas a naturally born infant's microbiota would more closely resemble the composition of the mother's vaginal tract microbiota. Thus, the child born by Cesarean section would have a less diverse microbiota, causing an inability to perform some of the same metabolic functions as a naturally born baby's microbiota in early childhood.These new suspected causes for childhood obesity are still being studied in order to confirm the direct correlation of antibiotics with childhood obesity, and not the infection in itself.