Chinese News Link: http://gwxy.tjmu.edu.cn/info/1067/2048.htm

Wuhan, China —Between October 8 and 10, 2017, the “International Symposium on Obesity and Nutrition”, hosted by the School of Public Health and Tongji Hospital, HUST, was held at the Tongji Medical College.More than 300 scholars, staff and university students in related fields from home and abroad attended the symposium. Participants expressed that they had benefited a lot from the symposium in broadening their horizons and improving their thinking in the field.

Professor Wu Tangchun, Dean of the School of Public Health, delivered a speech at the opening ceremony on the 9th. Professor Pan An from the School of Public Health, and Dr. Yao Ying, Director of the Clinical Nutrition Department at the Tongji Hospital, chaired the seminars on the morning and afternoon of the 9th, respectively.

Professor Boyd Swinburn, co-chair of the Department of Policy and Prevention at the World Obesity Federation, and Professor at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, presented a report entitled “Global Progress in Obesity Prevention”. He macroscopically analysed the various obstacles encountered in the global implementation of obesity prevention measures, and proposed that countries should solve the problem of “all forms of malnutrition” from government health policy, green food industry and other aspects. He also elucidated how to apply the systematic scientific methods to solve system problems.

Professor Frank Hu, Chair of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and a member of the US National Academy of Medicine, pointed out that the prevalence of obesity was increasing rapidly both in children and adults, in developed and developing countries. He analysed the main factors leading to obesity epidemics and diabetes in Asian populations, and proposed challenges and coping strategies for future prevention and control situations. He called for the active transformation of science into policies, and the interventions for the general public to eventually control the obesity epidemic globally.

Professor Qi Lu from the Tulan University Obesity Research Center introduced the current progress of dietary interventions for weight loss in the era of precision medicine. He pointed out that individuals’ responses to dietary interventions varied considerably, so it should be based on the interaction between environment, diet and genes to understand obesity. He introduced two famous dietary intervention trials and main conclusions in detail, which provided strong evidence for the precise management of obesity via dietary intervention. He believed that individuals’ responses to dietary interventions might be affected by genomic, metabolome, and other omics functions. How to turn scientific research findings into precise dietary intervention is still a challenge.

Professor Chih-Hao Lee also from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, discussed the "Mitochondrial Dynamics and Metabolic Health". He indicated that mitochondrial dynamic remodelling might lead to obesity and age-related metabolic diseases. He explained the mechanisms from the aspects of biological rhythm, mitochondrial fusion and expression of splitting/autophagy-related proteins, and suggested that mitochondrial dynamics might provide a drug target for the treatment of metabolic diseases.

Professor Ronald Ma of the School of Medicine, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, explained the relationship between gestational diabetes, paediatric obesity and the prevalence of chronic diseases. He indicated that the prevalence of gestational diabetes in Asia increased significantly. He believed that maternal hyperglycemia during pregnancy had long-term and cross-generational effects on offspring, suggesting that gestational diabetes might be an important cause of diabetes mellitus and other chronic non-communicable diseases. He outlined the key role of the intrauterine environment in the development of long-term diabetes and obesity, and proposed strategies to prevent gestational diabetes.

Professor Ma Guansheng of the School of Public Health, Peking University, presented the epidemic trend of childhood obesity in China, the factors leading to the increasing prevalence of paediatric obesity, the harm of childhood obesity on health, the economic burden of obesity and the economic effects of intervention, and finally put forward five suggestions.

Dr. Guo Jianjun from the Scientific Research Institute of the State General Administration of Sports, particularly emphasized that the role of exercise was not only in general sense of weight loss, but also in the various stimuli needed for the health of different organs.

Associate Professor Zhang Jianduan from the School, currently serving at the United Nations Childers’s Fund (UNICEF), introduced the profile and priorities of UNICEF, which led to a doubling of the burden of malnutrition worldwide. He proposed the international goal of “ending all forms of malnutrition” and finally introduced the healthy life and health plan and the difficulties it faced.

Professor Chen Lulu from the Union Hospital elaborated the role of catching up growth and thrifty genes, catching up growth phenomena and the pathophysiology of diabetes, insulin resistance and nutritional intervention.

Dr. Li Bai from the School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Birmingham, UK, introduced their "Chinese Primary School Obesity Intervention Study" from the aspects of qualitative research, randomized controlled trials, intervention evaluation and re-exploration of problems. She also put forward the experience that the project could be popularized.

Professor Yan Chonghuai from the Xinhua Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, introduced the research progress of environmental chemical pollutants and childhood obesity. He discussed the environmental pollutants and environmental endocrine disruptors and their exposure characteristics, and proposed epidemiological studies and mechanisms of environmental endocrine disruptors and obesity.

Professor Huang Cunrui from the School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, reported the relationship between climate change and globally obesity epidemic, introduced the current status and progress of climate change, the epidemic situation and trends of obesity, and expounded the common causes and correlation of the two phenomena.

On the 10th, clinicians and researchers from the clinical nutrition community in Hubei Province continued to discuss and exchange experience on specific nutritional issues in clinical practices.