Obesity and Dyslipidemia in South Asians
1
Fortis-C-DOC Centre of Excellence for Diabetes, Metabolic Diseases and Endocrinology, B-16, Chirag Enclave, New Delhi 110048, India
2
Diabetes Foundation (India), New Delhi 110016, India
3
National Diabetes, Obesity and Cholesterol Foundation (N-DOC), New Delhi 110016, India
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Nutrients 2013, 5(7), 2708-2733; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu5072708
Received: 1 May 2013 / Revised: 22 May 2013 / Accepted: 28 May 2013 / Published: 16 July 2013
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dyslipidemia and Obesity)
Obesity and dyslipidemia are emerging as major public health challenges in South Asian countries. The prevalence of obesity is more in urban areas than rural, and women are more affected than men. Further, obesity in childhood and adolescents is rising rapidly. Obesity in South Asians has characteristic features: high prevalence of abdominal obesity, with more intra-abdominal and truncal subcutaneous adiposity than white Caucasians. In addition, there is greater accumulation of fat at “ectopic” sites, namely the liver and skeletal muscles. All these features lead to higher magnitude of insulin resistance, and its concomitant metabolic disorders (the metabolic syndrome) including atherogenic dyslipidemia. Because of the occurrence of type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia and other cardiovascular morbidities at a lower range of body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC), it is proposed that cut-offs for both measures of obesity should be lower (BMI 23–24.9 kg/m2 for overweight and ≥25 kg/m2 for obesity, WC ≥80 cm for women and ≥90 cm for men for abdominal obesity) for South Asians, and a consensus guideline for these revised measures has been developed for Asian Indians. Increasing obesity and dyslipidemia in South Asians is primarily driven by nutrition, lifestyle and demographic transitions, increasingly faulty diets and physical inactivity, in the background of genetic predisposition. Dietary guidelines for prevention of obesity and diabetes, and physical activity guidelines for Asian Indians are now available. Intervention programs with emphasis on improving knowledge, attitude and practices regarding healthy nutrition, physical activity and stress management need to be implemented. Evidence for successful intervention program for prevention of childhood obesity and for prevention of diabetes is available for Asian Indians, and could be applied to all South Asian countries with similar cultural and lifestyle profiles. Finally, more research on pathophysiology, guidelines for cut-offs, and culturally-specific lifestyle management of obesity, dyslipidemia and the metabolic syndrome are needed for South Asians.
View Full-Text
Keywords:
obesity; abdominal obesity; dyslipidemia; triglycerides; Asian Indians; high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL); South Asians; nutrition; physical activity; type 2 diabetes
▼
Show Figures
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License
MDPI and ACS Style
Misra, A.; Shrivastava, U. Obesity and Dyslipidemia in South Asians. Nutrients 2013, 5, 2708-2733. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu5072708
AMA Style
Misra A, Shrivastava U. Obesity and Dyslipidemia in South Asians. Nutrients. 2013; 5(7):2708-2733. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu5072708
Chicago/Turabian StyleMisra, Anoop; Shrivastava, Usha. 2013. "Obesity and Dyslipidemia in South Asians" Nutrients 5, no. 7: 2708-2733. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu5072708
Find Other Styles
Search more from Scilit