Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0311277 (abdominal obesity)
 2,792 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Overweight and abdominal obesity increase mortality risk, although the risk may be mediated by traditional cardiac risk factors. The authors assessed the association of baseline measures, change in overall body weight and abdominal obesity (waist circumference), and weight and waist circumference cycling with total mortality among postmenopausal women with known heart disease. They used data from 2,739 US women who participated in the Heart and Estrogen/progestin Replacement Study between 1993 and 2001. Over 6.8 years of follow-up, 498 women died. In adjusted Cox models that included either baseline waist circumference or body mass index (BMI), each was associated with mortality. However, after further adjustment for diabetes, hypertension, and lipoproteins, these associations disappeared. In models including both waist circumference and BMI, larger waist circumference (hazard ratio=1.40 per standard deviation, 95% confidence interval: 1.16, 1.68) was associated with increased risk and higher BMI (hazard ratio=0.81 per standard deviation, 95% confidence interval: 0.67, 0.97) was associated with decreased risk of total mortality, independent of cardiac risk factors. Weight and waist circumference cycling were not associated with mortality. Results show that both BMI and waist circumference are associated with mortality among postmenopausal women with established heart disease, but waist circumference may be more important than BMI, and their effects may be largely mediated by other cardiac risk factors.
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PMID:Association of total and central obesity with mortality in postmenopausal women with coronary heart disease. 1465 1

Sex hormones play essential roles in the regulation of appetite, eating behaviour and energy metabolism and have been implicated in several major clinical disorders in women. Estrogen inhibits food intake, whereas progesterone and testosterone may stimulate appetite. This review describes recent findings concerning interactions between sex hormones and neuroendocrinological mechanisms in the control of appetite and eating in women. Furthermore, we are gaining insights into the roles played by sex hormones in the development of eating disorders and obesity. For instance, androgens may promote bulimia by stimulating appetite and reducing impulse control, a proposal supported by the observation that antiandrogenic treatment attenuates bulimic behaviour. Androgens are also involved in the pathophysiology of abdominal obesity in women. On the other hand, hormone replacement therapy with estrogen counteracts the weight gain and accumulation of abdominal fat associated with the menopausal transition. In conclusion, sex hormones and/or agents that exhibit similar activities may provide novel strategies for the treatment of eating disorders and android obesity, two of the most serious health problems for women today.
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PMID:Sex hormones, appetite and eating behaviour in women. 2228 Nov 61

A sexual dimorphism exists in which increased abdominal and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) - found in women and marked by low sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) and high bioavailable testosterone (BT) - is related to the metabolic risk profile. In men, increased BT is related to decreased abdominal obesity and a decrease in the metabolic risk profile. In women, race differences have been found in androgenic sex steroids including SHBG and BT as well as central fat distribution, creating inherently greater metabolic risk for certain populations. Estrogen and estrogen receptor isoforms play a role in fat deposition and distribution and may influence the changes that occur during the menopausal transition. Androgenic sex steroids serve a mediating role, influencing VAT accumulation and its associated metabolic risk factors while VAT also serves a mediating role influencing the androgenic sex steroid-metabolic risk relationship in women. Furthermore, androgenic sex steroids and VAT may independently contribute to the variance in several metabolic variables associated with cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and their antecedent conditions such as the metabolic syndrome. Race has been shown to modify the relationship between androgenic sex steroids and metabolic variables associated with risk for diabetes in Black and White women. Further research is warranted to examine the mechanisms involved in race differences. Total adiposity and central fat distribution in accordance with changes in the hormone and metabolic milieu influence breast cancer risk, which varies by race and menopausal status. These findings have broader implications for the study of health promotion/disease prevention in women.
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PMID:Race differences in obesity and its relationship to the sex hormone milieu. 2539 23

Estrogen's role in allergic diseases has recently been of considerable interest. The present article seeks to determine the relationship between estrogen-dependent traits and allergic rhinitis. The following traits were considered: digit ratio, age at menarche, regularity of menstrual cycles, and the waist to hip ratio. The study consisted of surveys and measurement data collected from 768 female university undergraduates. One hundred and sixty eight undergraduates (21.9%) had been diagnosed with allergic rhinitis. The results of logistic regression show that in women with a high digit ratio, indicating exposure to a higher estrogen level in the prenatal period, the risk of allergic rhinitis was almost twice as high as that in those with an average value of the ratio. The difference in the digit ratio was greater for the right than left hand. A significantly higher risk of allergic rhinitis was also observed in women who experienced first menstruation at a younger age. No differences in risk of allergic rhinitis were noted due to general obesity, abdominal obesity, or irregularity of menstrual cycles. We conclude that a higher digit ratio is suggestive of a propensity to allergies in adulthood plausibly having to do with greater exposure to estrogen at early stages of ontogenetic development.
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PMID:Association of Estrogen-Related Traits with Allergic Rhinitis. 2818 Nov 96