Introduction:

The close relation among diabetes mellitus type 2 and obesity has led to the creation of the term “diabesity,” considering it the new disease of XXI century. The fusion of these two diseases produces severe lesions in the hepatic tissue, the skeletal muscle and the cardiovascular system. It is important a healthy lifestyle and a good pharmacological adherence to fight this so called pandemic.

Objective:

Describe general aspects related to the physiopathology and treatment of diabesity.

Method:

It was carried out a non-systematic bibliographic search in databases like Science Direct, EMBASE, LILACS, Redalyc, SciELO and PubMed. The inclusion criteria were publications in English and Spanish language, with a periodicity of no more than 5 years, in which the title, keywords and abstract included information that will be relevant for the objective of the study. In the search 50 articles were found, of which 35 were selected.

Conclusions:

Insulin resistance is the key factor for the progression towards diabetes mellitus type 2, as a response of the adipose tissue to high levels of free fatty acids (lipotoxicity), which is a consequence of obesity, and obligates the pancreas to secrete big amounts of insulin that as time goes by compromises its functionality. Nowadays, there are different non-pharmacological, pharmacological and surgical alternatives to address the diabesity, in which prevention represents an aspect of vital importance.

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