Obesity in the new millennium

Obesity has increased at ale alarming rate in recent years and is now a wor ldwide public health problem. In addition to suffering poor health and an i ncreased risk of illnesses such as hypertension and heart disease, obese pe ople are often stigmatized socially. But major advances have now been made in identifying the components of the homeostatic system that regulates body weight, including several of the genes responsible for animal and human ob esity. A key element of the physiological system is the hormone leptin, whi ch acts on nerve cells in the brain (and elsewhere) to regulate food intake and body weight. The identification of additional molecules that comprise this homeostatic system will provide further insights into the molecular ba sis of obesity end possibilities for new treatments.