Weight fluctuations could increase blood pressure in android obese women

Recent studies have documented a relationship between increased morbidity a nd mortality from cardiovascular diseases and a history of weight cycling ( WC) in obese subjects. We performed a cross-sectional analysis in 96 weight -cycling android obese women, matched with 96 non-weight-cycling android ob ese women by age, body mass index (BMI) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), to ev aluate any increase in blood pressure (BP) levels in association with WC. T he patients were all between 20 and 45 years old, were non-menopausal, did not smoke, did not take any medication, had normal glucose tolerance and we re otherwise healthy. A history of WC was established on the basis of at le ast five weight losses in the previous 5 years due to dieting, with a weigh t loss of at least 4.5 kg per cycle. We documented higher levels of casual BP in the weight-cycling obese compared with the non-weight-cycling subject s: 147+/-12/90+/-8 mmHg versus 125+/-14/79+/-8 mmHg (P < 0.001). The women with WC showed a statistically significant positive correlation between BP and age, weight, BMI, waist circumference, WHR, total weight regained and w eight cycling index (WCI). However, in a multiple regression model only the WHR and WCI contributed significantly to the BP variability. These finding s could support the hypothesis that it is the combined exposure of central- type obesity and WC that strongly raises the prediction of hypertension.