Overweight and the Metabolic Syndrome will provide an overview of topics related to obesity, including associated health risks, childhood obesity, genetics, evaluation, treatment, behavioral strategies, and successes and failures in preventing obesity.

The body composition that underlies obesity and the metabolic syndrome is key to understanding the problem. The mechanisms by which energy balance is maintained is key to how the problem goes wrong. The metabolic syndrome is in part a consequence of central fat storage, but includes more issues such as insulin resistance, low levels of inflammation, and endothelial dysfunction. This volume will cover evaluation guidelines, different approaches to treatment, including diet, exercise, behavior, drugs, and surgery to deal with the current world-wide obesity epidemic.

This volume examines the problem of the overweight individual and the metabolic syndrome from the laboratory bench to the bedside. Clearly, translating the findings we make in the laboratory to the betterment of humankind is an important mission. Areas where basic science is making important contributions to the problems associated with metabolic syndrome are illustrated in the chapters on Neuroendocrine Control of Food Intake, Current Views of the Fat Cell as an Endocrine Cell: Lipotoxicity, and Ectopic Fat and Metabolic Syndrome. For each of these, the fast-moving basic science area is opening new vistas for translation to the bedside and clinic.

The larger segment of the book deals with the clinical context for the metabolic syndrome, central adiposity and overweight. The methods for measurement are well described and the application of these methods to evaluating patients and determining the prevalence in society is indicated. Genetic components of overweight and the metabolic syndrome are reviewed. The key role of visceral fat is emphasized by giving it a chapter of its own written by one of the foremost investigators of this problem. The importance of overweight and the metabolic syndrome in children is recognized in a separate chapter.

There are a number of chapters focusing on treatment including behavioral therapy, exercise, diet, medications and surgery. In summary, this book is the alpha and omega of the overweight and metabolic syndrome problem.

Series editor comments:

Drs. Bray and Ryan have assembled a superb panel of authors who bring their expertise to this very timely book for medical practice. The epidemic of obesity is addressed in authoritative and cutting edge chapters ranging from the fundamental genetics and physiology of appetite control through the latest pharmacologic applications and surgical interventions. This is a "must have" volume for those treating patients with appetite disorders, obesity and diabetes, as well as those studying the intrinsic cellular and whole body pathogenesis of this modern population disorder.

Shlomo Melmed, M.D.
Series Editor
Endocrine Updates