Obesity.

This article presents a panel discussion on obesity organized by New England Surgical Society. Approximately 38.8 million adults are considered obese by BMI criteria at a cost of more than $117 billion in 2000 related to the multiple medical problems associated with this disease. Of interest is the fact that in the last 17-year period, up to 2000, the number of U.S. children who were overweight has tripled. These are the associated medical hazards that frequent the obese and you can see that these are contributors to inordinately high cardiovascular risk factors. Cancer of the breast, colon, and endometrium are more common in obese patients as is cancer mortality.