A review of the significance of treating obesity and diabetes mellitus concurrently as a follow-up to our understanding of the disease

AimWith the growing epidemic of obesity in children, adolescents and adults globally, obesity has been found to be a risk factor for manynon-communicable diseases like type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), hypertension, dyslipidemias and many cancers. So much so thatrecently a term diabesity (Obesity and diabetes in the same patient, especially when the obesity had a causal influence on the diabetes)got introduced. The aim of this systematic review was to study how we can tackle together so that we can take care of the mortalitycaused by obesity and T2DM being responsible for more mortalities replacing malnutrition even in developing countries.MethodsWe carried out a PubMed search, along with Excerpta Medica dataBASE (EMBASE)/Cochrane library, web sciences for the MedicalSubject Headings (MeSH) Terms “obesity’’, “diabetes mellitus (DM)’’, “lifestyle including exercise’’, “diet therapy for management ofdiabesity’’, pharmacotherapy including foods rich in antidiabetics like anthocyanins’’, “polyphenols’’, “walnuts’’, “monoterpenes’’ forsame including “bariatric surgery (BS)’’.ResultsWe found a total of 86,283 articles pertaining to obesity and DM together of which we selected 92 articles for this review after gettingarticles after searching cross references. No meta-analysis was done.ConclusionTill date body mass index (BMI) is used to classify overweight and obesity. With decreased muscle mass being common in these obesepatients it is important to measure the body composition. Further, one has to monitor body composition when getting the patient tolose weight. Importantly, the criterion used for labelling obesity also varies in different geographical areas in view of different phenotype of diabetes in South Asia. Weight loss can be achieved using lifestyle interventions like diet, exercise and importance of combining natural products from food in attaining weight loss along with controlling hyperglycemia utilizing pharmacotherapies obesity andT2DM, control. Bariatric Surgery (BS) remains the last resort for morbidly obese although it might have to be resorted in individualswhere diabetes is resistant to medical treatment and be needed for those with BMI greater than 35 kg/m2or even less in case ofresistant diabetics. Role of diets rich in walnuts, anthrocyanins, soyabean, chickpeas, curcumin, polyphenols and other vitamins andmicronutrients including vitamin A, also needs to be considered while treating diabesity.