NUTRIGENOMICS AND PERSONALIZED TREATMENT OF PATIENTS WITH OBESITY

Obesity is a chronic, progressive disease, with multifactorial causes associated mainly with lifestyle (sedentary lifestyle, inadequate eating habits) and also with other conditions, such as genetic, hereditary, psychological, cultural, and ethnic factors. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that in 2016, there were approximately 1.9 billion (39%) individuals. In this scenario, nutrigenomics establishes personalized diets based on genotype, to promote health and reduce the risk of chronic non-communicable diseases such as obesity. Obesity is a disease characterized by excess adipose tissue, which may be of genetic origin, as seen in tumor necrosis factor (TNF), also considering environmental factors. Adipose tissue is also an endocrine organ with inflammatory functions, thus causing the prevalence of other diseases. The compounds present in food can modulate human genes, both positively and negatively, and are related to numerous pathologies. They are also considered modulators of the inflammatory response mainly due to their antioxidant action, thus helping obesity. Nutrigenetics understands the effects of genetic composition in response to diet, investigating the biological response to nutrients, while nutrigenomics is the science that studies the interaction between genes and nutrients, they propose to see individuals in a unique way differentiated by common genetic variations (polymorphisms) which makes the individual metabolically unique. Thus, genetic mapping may enable healthcare professionals to provide better assessments, enabling individual strategies for the treatment of various diseases. The doctor accurately evaluates the individual using, in addition to anthropometric parameters, knowledge of biochemistry and nutrition on an individual basis, evaluating the relationship between nutrients and genes. Thus, the present book aimed to present considerations and clinical approaches to the importance of nutrigenomics for the personalized treatment of patients with obesity.