EDITORIAL August 01, 2017 August 01, 2017

The obesity puzzle: focus on bone turnover after bariatric surgery

DOI: 10.1590/2359-3997000000298

This issue of the Archives of Endocrinology and Metabolism encompasses three studies related to obesity. The influence of genetics on the development of metabolic obesity complications, quality of life of obese patients and bone metabolism after bariatric surgery are discussed in order to increase the knowledge of these aspects in this complex disease.

The article “Prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms in obese patients candidates for bariatric surgery and its impact on health related quality of life” by Calenzani and cols. emphasizes the relationship between obesity and musculoskeletal symptoms and their influence on physical and mental aspects linked to the quality of life. In addition to the classical metabolic disorders related to obesity that abbreviate patients’ lives, the physical limitation caused by arthritis and joint deformities causes impairment in mobility, increasing sedentary lifestyle, with consequent reduction in energy expenditure (). Obese patients reported a very high frequency of pain in ankles/feet, knees and lumbar region. These symptoms impair deambulation and, thus obesity withdraws the right to come and go of these patients, determining furthermore impairment in their quality of life (). Differently from Brilmann and cols. (), who found a negative correlation between body mass index (BMI) and quality of life scores assessed through SF-36, Calenzani and cols. did not observed this association, that could be consequence of the relatively small and homogenously class 3 obesity sample of patients, as emphasized by the authors ().

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