The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday warned of the rising threat of heart disease and stroke as overweight and obesity rapidly increases.

The warning comes in advance of World Heart Day on Sept. 25, and the United Nations health agency urges healthy diet, physical activity and no tobacco use.

WHO estimates that over one billion people are overweight globally, and that if current trends continue, that number will increase to 1.5 billion by 2015.

Overweight and obesity are important risk factors for cardiovascular disease, which is the number one cause of death and accounts for over 17 million deaths every year.

Once considered a problem only in wealthy countries, WHO estimates show that overweight and obesity are now dramatically on the rise in low and middle income countries.

WHO says this is due to a number of factors, including a global shift in diet towards increased energy, fat, salt and sugar intake, and a trend towards decreased physical activity due to the sedentary nature of modern work and transportation, and increasing urbanisation.

"The sheer magnitude of the overweight and obesity problem is staggering," Catherine Le-Gales Camus, WHO assistant director-general of Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health, said in a statement.

"The rapid increase of overweight and obesity in many low and middle income countries foretells an overwhelming chronic disease burden in these countries in the next 10 to 20 years, if action is not taken now," she said.

WHO estimates that over the next ten years, cardiovascular disease -- primarily heart disease and stroke -- will increase most notably in the regions of the Eastern Mediterranean and Africa, where cardiovascular disease-related deaths are predicted to rise by over 25 percent.

WHO welcomes and supports this year's World Heart Day, taking place on Sunday, which draws attention to this problem and focus on the importance of maintaining Healthy Weight, Healthy Shape.

Source: Xinhua