Objective Prior research suggests a bidirectional relationship between obesity and major depressive disorder (MDD), but the results have been heterogeneous. Differences between males and females in the association of MDD with obesity may contribute to inconsistent results. Thus, this study was designed to determine whether sex has a differential effect on the relationship between MDD and obesit...

Leptin is an adipocytokine that has an important role in energy homeostasis and therefore in the patho-physiology of obesity. Leptin levels are influenced by many factors such as gender, race, energy intake, fat mass, etc. The aim of our study is to investigate the relationship of circulating leptin levels to anthropometric parameters and to the subcutaneous and visceral fat tissue determined b...

The influence of excess total and abdominal adiposity on cardiovagal baroreflex gain remains unclear. We tested the hypotheses that cardiovagal baroreflex gain would be reduced in men with 1) higher [higher fat (HF), mass >20 kg, n = 11] compared with lower [lower fat (LF), mass <20 kg, n = 10] levels of total body and abdominal fat and 2) higher abdominal visceral fat (HAVF; n = 10) compared w...

BACKGROUND Liver fat and visceral adiposity are involved in the development of the metabolic syndrome (MetS). Ectopic fat accumulation within and around the heart has been related to increased risk of heart disease. The aim of this study was to explore components of cardiac steatosis and their relationship to intra-abdominal ectopic fat deposits and cardiometabolic risk factors in nondiabetic o...

Unlike most chronic illnesses which have been declining or stabilizing in prevalence, incidence of type 2 diabetes has been increasing in the Western Hemisphere, and is now increasing at alarming rates in Asia1. While all causes of these increases cannot be identified, without question the increase in adiposity is an important contributor. The latter is due to increased caloric intake and reduc...

OBJECTIVE Few studies examine the relationships between anthropometry and the body composition measures they approximate, or whether they differ by sex, and no studies have examined these relationships in South Asians living in the US. DESIGN We conducted a cross-sectional study of 871 participants in the Mediators of Atherosclerosis in South Asians Living in America (MASALA) Study who had BM...

Increased plasminogen activator inhibitor type-1 (PAI-1) levels, leading to impaired fibrinolysis, are associated with increased visceral fat in middle-aged and obese subjects. It is unknown, however, whether this association is independent of other disturbances clustered in the insulin resistance syndrome. We analyzed this association in young, nonobese transsexual men and women before and aft...

BACKGROUND The relationship between abdominal visceral fat accumulation and lacunar infarcts has not been previously investigated in Japanese men. METHODS AND RESULTS The subjects were 637 middle-aged (40-64 years) and 222 elderly (65-79 years) men who participated in a health checkup program from 1999 to 2003. The association between lacunar infarcts identified by magnetic resonance imaging ...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS The relation between adiposity and arterial stiffness remains controversial. We determined whether abdominal and visceral adipose tissue may be a better predictor of arterial stiffness than general obesity in middle-aged adults. METHODS AND RESULTS A total of 146 participants (76 men, 70 women; 50 years) were studied. The automatic vascular screening device (Omron VP-1000p...