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Query: UMLS:C0028754 (obesity)
 124,988 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

We investigated the differences in the prevalence of obesity between France, the United Kingdom and the United States in 1988. The analysis was made on a total sample of 5580 subjects, representative of the population aged 16-50 years in the three countries. The same questionnaire was used in all three countries. Body mass index (kg/m2) was used to assess corpulence. Significant differences in the prevalence of obesity were observed among the three countries: 7% of the population in France was obese, 9% in the UK and 15% in the USA (P less than 0.001). There was a strikingly high percentage of very obese women (more than 50% overweight) in the USA (8% of the population) as compared to the two European countries (2% in France and 3% in the UK). In all three countries, obesity was related to sex, age, level of education, marital status, physical exercise and smoking. An inverse association was found between obesity and alcohol consumption in the USA, but not in France nor in the UK. In men, prevalence of obesity remained significantly higher in the USA than in France or in the UK when adjusting for the obesity-related factors. In women, differences in prevalence of obesity between the three countries varied according to the level of exercise, income and alcohol consumption.
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PMID:Prevalence of obesity: a comparative survey in France, the United Kingdom and the United States. 132 86

A retrospective study of 70 fat women and 70 women of normal weight was carried out to compare their obstetric performance. The patients were assessed before pregnancy for corpulence by estimating the body mass index (IMC). Obesity was defined by having an index of 30 or above. The mean weight of the obese patients at delivery was 142 kgs and of the controls 65.4 kgs. The main risk in obese patients is a raised blood pressure (34%); and in spite of this no child showed intrauterine growth retardation. The mean weight of the newborn infants was 3.7 kgs against a mean weight of 3.2 kgs in the control group. Eighteen infants born to obese mothers were very heavy (25%). The increase in fetal weight explains why the caesarean section rate was three times as high in the obese patients as in the control due to disproportion (25%). These differences are statistically significant. Neonatal morbidity was similar in the two groups. It is debatable whether a slimming diet was worthwhile. All the same calorie intake reduced slightly to about 1.800 calories a day together with vitamin supplements is advisable. It does not have any ill effect on the fetus.
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PMID:[Pregnancy and obesity. A case control study of 140 cases]. 140 73

The brain, particularly certain nuclei of the hypothalamus and their neural connections, have a major influence on energy balance, through effects on both food intake and energy expenditure. As summarized in Table 1, there are indeed extensive interactions between the hypothalamus and adipose tissue, the predominate site of storage of chemical energy. Structural, and possibly functional, abnormalities of the neural structures facilitate the development of obesity. This review has described four components of the interactive system. Two of these components are still partly conjectural; while we have increasing experimental support, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adipose axis and the hypothalamic-efferent neural-cytoskeletal pathway are the subject of continuing intense investigation. More complete knowledge of the pathophysiology of obesity will, in turn, facilitate prevention and treatment of corpulence, as well as such frequent associations as non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus.
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PMID:Relationships between the hypothalamus and adipose tissue mass. 192 95

The relationships of alcohol intake and corpulence to HDL-cholesterol were studied in 653 women taking medical advice about body weight. The body mass index (BMI) was positively correlated with triglyceride and negatively with HDL-cholesterol. The relation between BMI and HDL-cholesterol was discontinuous. Total cholesterol, triglycerides and diastolic blood pressure were increased for alcohol intakes greater than 10 g/d regardless of body weight. Alcohol intake was associated with higher concentrations of HDL-cholesterol (P = 0.006) in non obese (BMI = 25.2 +/- 1.5 kg/m2) subjects, but not in mildly (27.3 less than or equal to BMI less than 32.3) or massively (BMI greater than or equal to 32.3) obese subjects. The fact that HDL concentrations were not associated with alcohol intake in obese patients suggests that (1) alcohol acts on the HDL pool through one of the pathways which are perturbed in obesity, possibly lipolysis, (2) obesity is one of the reasons for the differences in individual responses of HDL-cholesterol to alcohol, (3) myocardial infarction might not be inversely correlated with alcohol intake in the obese as it is in the non-obese population.
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PMID:Lack of association between dietary alcohol and HDL-cholesterol concentrations in obese women. 232 22

Food intake was studied in 339 French children, aged 7-12 years. Daily energy consumption and distribution of intake over the waking hours estimated from dietary histories were compared in children of five corpulence categories. The categories (lean, slim, average, fat, obese) were defined on the basis of the weight/height2 index. No difference in estimated daily energy intake was observed between corpulence groups; however, the reported distribution of intake over the waking hours varied. Obese and fat children ate less at breakfast and more at dinner than leaner peers. The traditionally larger meals of the day (lunch and dinner) represented higher proportions of daily intake in fat and obese children; the energy value of breakfast and afternoon snack was inversely related to corpulence. Although these effects do not rule out hyperphagia or increased 'externality' in some overweight subjects, the results suggest a possible contribution of disturbed metabolic and/or behavioral daily cycles in the development of overweight. This hypothesis, which should be investigated further, suggests prevention strategies.
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PMID:Obesity and food intake in children: evidence for a role of metabolic and/or behavioral daily rhythms. 323 62

The role of brown adipose tissue in the development and maintenance of obesity has been a recent focus of research efforts. Brown fat serves as a heat-producing tissue, via nonshivering and diet-induced thermogenesis, because of a unique mechanism that uncouples oxidative phosphorylation. The importance of these forms of thermogenesis to energy balance has been characterized in animal models of obesity; increased metabolic efficiency has been attributed to impaired heat production and compositional and functional alterations in brown fat. Although the possibility exists that human obesity may partly result from inadequate thermogenesis, evidence that the defect is related to brown fat is tenuous. Currently, the contribution of brown fat to metabolic rate in human beings has been estimated as minor. However, even if it is found that differences in brown fat cannot explain differences in corpulence, interest in the tissue will likely continue. Because of its ability to waste calories, the potential for manipulating body weight by stimulation of brown fat remains a promising field of investigation.
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PMID:Brown adipose tissue: regulation of thermogenesis and implications for obesity. 329 79

Many studies have failed to show a correlation between individual energy intake and obesity. However, the prevalence of overweight is higher in populations with higher caloric intake. In this study on a population of French children, no correlation was found between energy intake and individual corpulence (wt/ht2 index or skinfold thickness), but a higher proportion of overweight children was found in lower social classes where energy intake is traditionally higher. A hypothesis is proposed to account for this apparent contradiction: the typical lifestyle or diet in a given population challenges individual adaptive capacities; the more caloric the socially accepted diet, the higher the proportion of individuals who are challenged beyond their adaptive threshold. Socially determined factors such as a high calorie diet act in a permissive way in the development of obesity although the caloric intake of obese individuals may be no different from that of nonobese peers.
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PMID:No correlation between adiposity and food intake: why are working class children fatter? 378 30

This study was undertaken to determine the interrelations between clinico-biochemical parameters and hepatic morphology in markedly obese patients. One hundred and sixty-six women and 52 men comprise this series. There was a statistically significant association of carbohydrate metabolism disturbance with increasing age and corpulence and, in women, with hyperuricaemia and morphological alterations of the liver. Menstrual irregularities also correlated well with hepatic morphology. The livers frequently exhibited steatosis, but other morphological changes were mild. Compared with women, men had higher triglyceride values, more severe hepatic involvement, and poorer correlation of carbohydrate disturbances with hepatic histology. The results indicate a central role of the impaired carbohydrate utilization in the biochemical and hepatic alterations of obesity.
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PMID:Relationship between hepatic morphology and clinical and biochemical findings in morbidly obese patients. 475 Apr 60

Two score systems, one for the diagnosis of obesity and another for diagnosing undernutrition were tested in thirteen overweight and seven underweight children aged five years and preliminarily classified as malnourished. These score-systems included indicators grouped into three categories, those which evaluate total body mass changes (one-point group); those which assess fatness (two-point group); and those which assess fatness and/or body composition through complex indices (three-point group). Indicators such as Energy/Protein Index, AKS Index, Somatotype ratings, and Somatotype Dispersion Distances were included in the third group and played an important role in the final score. A subject was classified as malnourished if he reached 80% of the maximum possible score. According to these criteria, only six among the thirteen overweight children could be considered obese and none of the seven underweight ones could be classified as undernourished. Mild or moderate overweight or underweight may be misleading and an incorrect diagnosis of either obesity or undernutrition can be made if the possibility of constitutional corpulence or thinness is not taken into account.
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PMID:Testing of two score systems for the diagnosis of malnutrition. 667 Oct 67

This chapter has reviewed the evidence for obesity being characterized by distinct patterns of hormonal changes related to both the degree of obesity and the distribution of fat tissue. Many of these changes are also seen in subjects with Cushing's and polycystic ovary syndromes, in particular hyperinsulinaemia, alterations in adrenocortical activity and sex steroid secretion and binding. Animal models of obesity provide evidence to suggest the possibility of a primary abnormality of hypothalamic-pituitary function as a basis to corpulence and this cannot be excluded in the human situation. Nevertheless, abdominal distribution of adiposity plays a significant role in establishing a vicious cycle of metabolic events which may perpetuate both the obese state and PCOS. It is of interest that the additive genetic effect for total body fat is about 25% whereas the heritability of subcutaneous truncal-abdominal fat is about 30-35%, and may possibly be higher (Bouchard et al, 1993). Upper body obesity is characterized by large adipose cells with higher LPL activity, elevated basal and stimulated lipolysis but a low antilipolytic effect of insulin. The results from preliminary investigations of potential candidate genes suggest a possible genetic basis to hyperinsulinaemia/insulin resistance found in upper body obesity but further studies of greater numbers are required for confirmation. It is hoped that the findings from such molecular studies will shed additional light on both the genetic background to obesity and the complex hormonal alterations seen at the tissue level. This should provide the confirmation of a unifying theory for the causal factors associated with obesity and related conditions.
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PMID:Hormones and obesity. 798 Mar 47


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