Cigarette Smoking, Inflammation, and Obesity (2nd edition)

Obesity has already reached epidemic proportions in many countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and many upcoming economies. Latest estimates indicate that it now affects approximately 33% of adults worldwide [1-3]. 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 reasonably well 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 the 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 than absolute fat mass or BMI.