Cigarette smoking, inflammation, and obesity

Obesity has already reached epidemic proportions in many countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, and many developing economies, affecting approximately 33% of adults worldwide. The body mass index (BMI; the weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in meters) is an indicator of obesity that is easy to calculate and is sufficiently correlated with direct anthropometric measures of body. A BMI greater than 28 is generally associated with a three- to fourfold increased risk of clinical conditions such as stroke, ischemic heart disease, or diabetes mellitus [1]. A central distribution of body fat (as determined by the ratio of waist circumference to hip circumference: 0.90 in women and 1.0 in men) is widely accepted to reflect so-called visceral fat, which is associated with a higher risk than a more peripheral distribution and may be a better indicator of the risk of morbidity than absolute fat mass. Childhood obesity increases the risk of subsequent morbidity, whether or not obesity persists into adulthood [1].