Hepatology is a growing field in medicine that has achieved important advances in the diagnosis and treatment of liver diseases. Currently, obesity is an emerging public health problem affecting millions of people worldwide. By 2050, obesity has been projected to rise even more if prevention strategies are not implemented to curb this tendency. In Mexico as in other Latin American countries, multiple factors contribute towards the predisposition for obesity, starting with macro-level factors of globalization that shift societies towards a westernized lifestyle as well as other regional risk factors. Furthermore, obesity promotes metabolic abnormalities that can cause different grades of liver damage, i.e., fibrosis, cirrhosis, or liver cancer, due to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a comorbidity that is currently considered as the third cause of chronic liver disease after alcohol abuse and hepatitis viruses.
Obesity and NASH are non-communicable chronic diseases (NCD) that are triggered by both genetic and environmental risk factors. Gene-environment interactions are key players in the onset and progression of these diseases that need to be identified accordingly by population. The Latin American region holds unique admixed populations in which the inheritance of the Amerindian, European and African lineages confer variable genetic susceptibility for developing NCD. Other key aspects are cultural practices and lifestyle choices that can modulate their onset and progression. These assumptions have an impact on how regional medical associations and public health service authorities work on their respective management and treatment guidelines since not all populations have the same genetic background and even lifestyle risk factors. Therefore, it is an opportunity and challenge to engage in the pursuit of evidence-based knowledge through quantitative and qualitative research to tackle the obesity problem and obesity-related co-morbidities among the population of Latin America.
The 1st SINGLE TOPIC CONFERENCE, GENOMIC MEDICINE IN HEPATOLOGY: OBESITY and LIVER DAMAGE is a 3-day academic programme that will be held in the INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS IN ADVANCES OF MEDICINE-CIVIL HOSPITALS OF GUADALAJARA (CIAM XXI 2019) in conjunction with the MEXICAN ASSOCIATION OF HEPATOLOGY (AMH).
The objective is to provide updated information and new insights in regards to the epidemiology, physiopathology, genetics, and medical and nutritional management of obesity, NASH and liver damage with a multi-disciplinary approach. Distinguished speakers who are researchers or clinicians in the field of Hepatology will cover topics such as:
- •
How prevalent is obesity, NASH and liver damage in Mexico and Latin America.
- •
How genes and lifestyle factors influence the clinical outcome.
- •
How can we prevent these diseases.
- •
Which medical and nutritional strategies should we use in Mexico and Latin America.
Other topics equally important will be natural history, early diagnosis and staging of liver damage, genome-based nutrition in the management of obesity and NASH, and the impact of other co-morbidities such as alcohol abuse and hepatitis viruses.
For further information:
E-mail: biomomed@cencar.udg.mx andhttp://www.hcg.udg.mx/ciam/index.php
