Metabolic changes associated with obesity in adults

In order to find if the metabolic disorders more frequently found in our obese population were similar to the ones reported in the literature for other countries, a study was conducted in a group of 34 obese subjects (10 men and 24 women) whose only apparent alteration was a body mass index above 30 (mean value: 36.8 +/- 4.6) to obtain the relation between anthropometric measurements (Quetelet index, skinfold measures and waist/hip ratio) and plasma levels of nine biochemical parameters (including lipids, lipoproteins and glucose and insulin levels after an oral glucose load). The results revealed a tendency to the android distribution of fat in the female population, a significantly elevated triglyceride and total lipids levels and a decreased in HDL-cholesterol in both sexes. Hypercholesterolemia was present mainly in the male population. The most frequent dyslipidemia was Type IV (23%) followed by type IIb (15%). Practically none of the subjects had abnormal glycemic values after the glucose load, however the insulin levels were highly elevated in 80% of the patients, resulting in a great insulin/glucose ratios. Correlation analysis showed no association of the BMI with any biochemical parameter; only the insulin area was positively associated with anthropometric measures (mainly waist/hip ratio) and with the most altered biochemical parameter, the triglycerides. Variance analysis showed that only low HDL-cholesterol values were significantly different in patients presenting high blood pressure and familiar history of diabetes.