World Obesity Awareness Week is celebrated from October 15th to 19th annually. This celebration assumes significance in the light of the disturbing escalation of obesity figures worldwide. India alone is weighed down by a whopping 97 million obese citizens. As much as India is on the road to becoming a preferred healthcare destination, it is also grappling many in-house healthcare issues in the wake of the obesity epidemic.

Obesity may be defined as a condition in which there is an excessive amount of body fat. This is one of the most common disease found all over the world. This is most prevalent in middle age and can occur at any stage of life. Abnormal influence or imbalance can be one of the causes of obesity. Obesity in women commonly begins at puberty, during pregnancy or at menopause. The use of steroids, oral contraceptives and insulin is commonly followed by weight gain.

Cholesterol is a type of fat, one which is very important for life. It is a vital building block of many substances including the cell membrane of every cell in our body. The word 'cholesterol' is associated with heart disease and obesity. However cholesterol is a very important type of fat for vital living. We have to have some cholesterol, but the liver can make as much as we need.

Bariatrics is the field of medicine that deals with the study of being overweight, its prevention and treatment. The procedure was developed out of modifications on cancer/ulcer operations that involve the removal of a part of the stomach or small intestine. It was noticed that patients undergoing these operations lost weight afterwards, and the doctors developed the idea of using similar types of surgery to treat morbid obesity.

Heart attack, also called myocardial infarction, is the death of the heart muscle due to loss of blood supply caused due to blockage in one or more of the coronary arteries supplying the heart. The most common condition that predisposes a person to heart attack is underlying coronary artery disease that is caused due to the deposition of cholesterol and calcium along the walls of the coronary arteries.