Primary care and primary healthcare in obesity management

Primary care clinicians should initiate patient-centred conversations with their patients about overweight or obesity. The 5As of Obesity ManagementTM (Ask-Assess-Advise-Agree-Assist) approach, starting with asking permission to discuss weight, is an appropriate format to use. Primary care clinicians should promote a holistic approach to weight and health focusing on health behaviours and addressing root causes of weight gain, with care to avoid stigmatizing and using overly simplistic narratives like "eat less and move more." Prescribing clinicians must be aware of obesogenic medications and consider alternatives for people living with overweight and obesity. When obesogenic medications must be used, physicians should discuss the risks with patients and institute monitoring for weight gain. Providers and patients need to be aware of the risks of weight cycling and adopt strategies that focus on sustained changes to maintain healthy habits over time.

Obesity in adults: a clinical practice guideline

Obesity is a complex chronic disease in which abnormal or excess body fat (adiposity) impairs health, increases the risk of long-term medical complications and reduces lifespan.1 Epidemiologic studies define obesity using the body mass index (BMI; weight/height2), which can stratify obesity-related health risks at the population level. Obesity is operationally defined as a BMI exceeding 30 kg/m2 and is subclassified into class 1 (30­34.9), class 2 (35­39.9) and class 3 (≥ 40). At the population level, health complications from excess body fat increase as BMI increases.2 At the individual level, complications occur because of excess adiposity, location and distribution of adiposity and many other factors, including environmental, genetic, biologic and socioeconomic factors.

Nocturnal hypoxemia severity and renin-angiotensin system activity in obstructive sleep apnea.

RATIONALE: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and nocturnal hypoxemia are associated with chronic kidney disease and up-regulation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS), which is deleterious to renal function. The extent to which the magnitude of RAS activation is influenced by the severity of nocturnal hypoxemia and comorbid obesity has not been determined. OBJECTIVES: To determine the association between the severity of nocturnal hypoxemia and RAS activity and whether this is independent of obesity in patients with OSA. METHODS: Effective renal plasma flow (ERPF) response to angiotensin II (AngII) challenge, a marker of renal RAS activity, was measured by paraaminohippurate clearance technique in 31 OSA subjects (respiratory disturbance index, 51 ± 25 h(-1)), stratified according to nocturnal hypoxemia status (mean nocturnal SaO2, ≥90% [moderate hypoxemia] or <90% [severe hypoxemia]) and 13 obese control subjects. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Compared with control subjects, OSA subjects demonstrated decreased renovascular sensitivity (ERPF, -153 ± 79 vs. -283 ± 31 ml/min; P = 0.004) (filtration fraction, 5.4 ± 3.8 vs. 7.1 ± 2.6%; P = 0.0025) in response to 60 minutes of AngII challenge (mean ± SD; all P values OSA vs. control). The fall in ERPF in response to AngII was less in patients with severe hypoxemia compared with those with moderate hypoxemia (P = 0.001) and obese control subjects after 30 minutes (P < 0.001) and 60 minutes (P < 0.001) of AngII challenge, reflecting more augmented renal RAS activity. Severity of hypoxemia was not associated with the blood pressure or the systemic circulating RAS component response to AngII. CONCLUSIONS: The severity of nocturnal hypoxemia influences the magnitude of renal, but not the systemic, RAS activation independently of obesity in patients with OSA.