Obesity in Children and Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders: Is It Time to Demonstrate the Causal Link?

Abstract

Childhood obesity represents a current health emergency, due to the growing spread of this phenomenon and the complications associated with this condition. According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), 18% of children aged between 5 and 19 are overweight or obese. 1 At the same time, the so-called functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs) are also frequent in children and adolescents. These conditions are a broad spectrum of disorders, that manifest themselves with symptoms starting from the gastrointestinal tract, which cannot be explained by biochemical or structural abnormalities. 2 Their origin is based on the close connections between the gastrointestinal tract and the brain. 2 The brain-gut axis is the neuroanatomic substrate of this connection that allows communication from emotional and cognitive centers in the central nervous system to the peripheral centers of the gastrointestinal tract and vice versa. 2 Psychosocial factors such as psychological stress and mood disorders act on this substrate affecting sensory, motor, immune, and inflammatory functions of the digestive system At the same time, nutrition and microbiota com-Maternal and Child Department,