obesity

The childhood obesity is increased more than three folds in last two decades in developed world. There is nutritional transition seen in the developing world including India. The westernization in diet of the Indian population along with prosperity brings the brunt of overweight and obesity. This has future implications of liver diseases, heart diseases, hypertension, hyperlipidaemia, insulin resistance; malignancies. Mumbai is the prosperous city and an economical capital of India. Also, the rampant use junk food, common outdoor eating’s, no grounds to play for children make the high likelihood that the prevalence of obesity to be higher than rest of the country. It can profoundly affect children’s physical health, social, and emotional well-being and self-esteem. It is also associated with poor academic performance and a lower quality of life experienced by the child. One of the best strategies to reduce childhood obesity is to improve the eating and exercise habits of the entire family. Treating and preventing childhood obesity helps protect the child’s health and has tremendous impact on child’s Physical and academic performance. And hence we at Aastha Bariatrics took initiative and launched ECHO... for a change (‘E’radicating ‘C’Hild ‘H’ood ‘O’besity), a pan Mumbai campaign against childhood obesity. This campaign was done in 15 high schools across Mumbai, which covered in total of 9000 students.

Obesity is a multifactorial epidemic disease of environmental origin that affects subjects of all countries and whose origin is not in the stomach or intestines. Surgical treatment represents a unique case of surgery for operating healthy organs, which are not the cause of the disease and do not improve after the operation. Kremen and Linner [1] and Varco and Buchwald teams of in Minneapolis, MN began the intestinal deviation (ID) of malabsorption in 1954. Payne [2] and Scott [3] developed these ID techniques in the 1960s leaving only 14- 4 inches (35 -10 cm) as an absorption zone and were abandoned in the 1970s due to its serious metabolic (malnutrition) and liver complications (liver failure).

Understanding the obesity-related genes may provide future therapeutic strategies to modulate disease progression. UCP2 separates oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) from ATP production in the inner mitochondria. Figure 1 shows the differences among UCP1, 2, 3. The main role of UCP2 is controlling the metabolism of energy in the cells [1-3]. Besides that, the expression of UCP2 is associated with chronic inflammation due to reactive oxygen species (ROS). In this regard, in injured cells and tissues, ROS could be decreased by reducing the proton motor force by the anti-inflammatory effect of UCP2 [4].

This non-systematic review outlines the current knowledge concerning provenance, chemical composition and properties of apple cider vinegar, its general health effects, as well as the currently available knowledge concerning its action on fat storage, physiological mechanisms of its effects, as well as its safety and recommended dosage for treatment of obesity. 

Objective: Dysfunctional breathing (DB) refers to abnormal patterns of breathing. No gold standard exists for diagnosis. In clinical practice we regularly see children with functional breathing problems. We collected data from this patient group to gain more insight into the characteristics of children with dysfunctional breathing. Methods: We composed a retrospective, cross-sectional study. The population consisted of children referred to a physiotherapist by a pediatrician due to suspected dysfunctional breathing. Data from 2013-2015 were collected from patient files, selected according to patterns and onset of symptoms, concomitant asthma, Nijmegen questionnaire (NQ) score, maximum exercise capacity and breathing pattern. Results: A total of 201 patients were included in the study, 66% of whom were female. The mean age was 13.9 years; 26% of the children were overweight. The most frequently reported symptoms were breathlessness, chest pain/tightness and dizziness. Fifty-two percent had a NQ score ≥23, mainly female. Twenty-eight percent of the children scored < p5 for their age on maximum exercise capacity; this proportion was substantially higher among males. Of the total population, 78% scored < p50 for their age. Subgroups with a higher body mass index (BMI) showed lower maximum exercise capacity. Children presenting with pulmonary symptoms were primarily misdiagnosed with asthma. Conclusion: Dysfunctional breathing is a common cause of respiratory complaints. Most children with dysfunctional breathing have a high BMI and are in poor physical condition, which suggests a clinically relevant comorbidity and possible options for therapy. Children are often falsely diagnosed with asthma; better recognition will decrease unnecessary medication use.Introduction

Introduction: The disease outbreak of COVID-19 has had a great clinical and microbiological impact in the last few months. In the preanalytical phase, the collection a sample from of a respiratory tract at the adequate moment and from the correct anatomical site is essential for a rapid and precise molecular diagnosis with a false negative rate of less than 20%. Materials and methods: We conducted a descriptive study of COVID-19 disease with a persistently negative RT-PCR test in patients seen at the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases (INER) in Mexico City in the period of March through May of 2020. 38 patients were registered with negative RT-PCR test obtained through nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabbing. We evaluated the distribution of data with the Shapiro-Wilk test of normality. The non-parametric data are reported with median. The nominal and ordinal variables are presented as percentages. Results: The average age of our cohort was 46 years and 52.63% were male (n = 20). Diabetes Mellitus was documented in 34.21% (n = 13) of the patients, Systemic Hypertension in 21.05% (n = 8), Obesity in 31.57% (n = 12) and Overweight in 42.10% (n = 16). Exposure to tobacco smoke was reported in 47.36% (n = 18) of the patients. The median initial saturation of oxygen was 87% at room air. The severity of the disease on admission was: mild 71.05% (n = 27), moderate 21.05% (n = 8) and severe or critical in 7.89% (n = 3) of the cases respectively. 63.15% (n = 24) sought medical care after 6 or more days with symptoms. Lymphopenia was documented in 78.94% (n = 30). Median LDH at the time of admission was 300, being elevated in 63.15% (n = 24) of the cases. The initial tomographic imaging of the chest revealed predominantly ground glass pattern in 81.57% (n = 31) and predominantly consolidation in 18.42% (n = 7). The registered mortality was 15.78% (n = 6). Conclusion: Patients with COVID-19 and a persistently negative RT-PCR test with fatal outcomes did not differ from the rest of the COVID-19 population since they present with the same risk factors shared by the rest of patients like lymphopenia, comorbidities, elevation of D-Dimer and DHL on admission as well as a tomographic COVID-19 score of severe illness, however we could suggest that the percentage of patients with a mild form of the disease is higher in those with a persistently negative RT-PCR test.

Acute pancreatitis forms a major bulk of our inpatient admission due to gall stone disease. Diagnosis of acute pancreatitis remains a challenge even now. Serum amylase remains the most commonly used biochemical marker for its diagnosis but its sensitivity can be reduced by late presentation, hyper-triglyceridemia and chronic alcoholism. We conducted a study to determine the levels of serum and urinary amylase in patients with acute pancreatitis and compared their sensitivity and correlation with CT findings vis-à-vis the severity of the disease. The study was taken as a post graduate research model in the Post graduate Department of General and Minimal Access Surgery, Govt. Medical College Srinagar, J&K, India 2014-2016 and submitted for the award of masters in General Surgery. A total number of 150 patients were enrolled in the studies which were admitted in our unit as acute pancreatitis. 73 (48.7%) belonged to the age group of 30-44 years, 15(10%) patients aged >60 years with 86 (57.3%) males and 64 (42.7%) females. We had 81 (54%) patients with biliary tract diseases, followed by 21 (14%) patients with worm induced, 20 (13.3%) had hyperlipidaemia and only 4 (2.7%) patients had post ERCP etiology. Tenderness in epigastrium was the presenting sign in 111 (74%), followed by chest signs in 25 (16.7%) patients, diffuse tenderness in 19 (12.7%), icterus in 11 (7.3%), low grade fever in 9 (6%) patients, shock in 5 (3.3%). Diabetes mellitus as a comorbidity was observed in 48 (32%) patients followed by hypothyroidism 37 (24.7%) patients. Hypertension was seen in 31 (20.7%) patients, COPD in 19 (12.7%) patients and obesity in 13 (8.7%) patients. Twenty two (14.7%) needed ICU admission; while as 128 (85.3%) were managed in the general ward. All the enrolled patients in our study were managed conservatively. Out of a total of 150 patients, 148 (98.7%) survived while as only 2 (1.3%) of our patients expired. At the time of admission in the hospital, 120 (80%) patients had serum amylase level of >450 U/L, 19 (12.7%) patients had 150-450 U/L levels while as 11 (7.3%) patients had <150 U/L serum amylase levels. CT has been shown to yield an early overall detection rate of 90% with close to 100% sensitivity after 4 days for pancreatic gland necrosis. The correlation of urinary amylase with the CECT Severity Scoring in a patient of acute pancreatitis is still ambiguous.

Introduction: Immediate postoperative gastrointestinal bleeding following bariatric bypass surgery is a major complication, and usually results from staple line hemorrhage or conventional gastro-esophageal causes. Dieulafoy`s lesion is a rare cause of gastrointestinal bleeding and is usually managed by endoscopic means. Herein we present a case of massive intraoperative bleeding resulting from gastric Dieulafoy`s lesion single anastomosis gastric bypass surgery necessitating resection of the gastric pouch. This is the first description of this complication, and the difference of such a lesion from the sporadic ones is discussed. Discussion: Gastric bypass surgery is an effective procedure for morbid obesity. The approach we have adopted for massive upper GI hemorrhage in the immediate postoperative period should be distinguished from delayed bleeding after gastric bypass. In these latter cases, marginal ulceration is more common than bleeding from the remnant gastric pouch. It is also likely that bleeding from a Dieulafoy`s lesion following gastric bypass surgery represents a different disease compared to other Dieulafoy`s cases. Conclusion: This is the first description of an intraoperative Dieulafoy`s lesion bleeding during the conduct of a single anastomosis gastric bypass procedure which required gastric pouch resection. Such a lesion differs from sporadic Dieulafoy`s cases, and must be considered in every case of intraoperative bleeding during gastric bypass. 

Background: To date, the scientific community has mainly focused on outcomes of obesity surgery such as weight loss and resolution of associated complications. Adverse post-operative events and reoperation rates have been poorly reported even if they are a marker of surgical safety and therefore of great importance in guiding patients and surgeons in the choice of the more suitable operation. Methods: This retrospective multicenter observational study is based on the data extracted from the Italian Society of Bariatric Surgery and Metabolic Disorders (S.I.C.OB.) database, which covers almost all the bariatric operations performed in Italy. We analysed the 30 days post-operative complications occurring, in the period from 2009 to 2015, after Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass (RYGB), Sleeve Gastrectomy (SG) and Mini Gastric Bypass/One Anastomosis Gastric Bypass (MGB/OAGB) qualitatively, quantitatively and on the basis of the Clavien-Dindo classification of surgical complications. Complications following surgeries were tested using the 95% confidence interval. Statistical analysis was performed with Statistical Analysis System (SAS). Results: In the 2009-2015 time frame, a total of 31,624 operations were performed of which 6,864 RYGB, 10,833 SG and 992 MGB/OAGB. The complication rate was 4.39 %, 4.04 % and 3.83% respectively. The most frequent complications were hemoperitoneum (0.9%) and perforation, fistula and dehiscence (1%) which were higher in SG when compared with RYGB (with a statistical significance) and when compared with MGB/OAGB (without a statistical significance). When dividing the complications by the different grades of the Clavien-Dindo classification, the only significant difference encountered, from a statistical standpoint, was between MGB/OAGB and SG. MGB/OAGB was associated with a lower grade I Clavien-Dindo complication rate (1.31% versus 2.34%). Conclusion: This study supports a safe profile of obesity surgey in Italy, along with positive bariatric outcomes. The rate of 30 days post-operative complications is progressively lower after MGB/OAGB (3.83%), SG (4.04%) and RYGB (4.39%) respectively. In particular, MGB/OAGB records statistically less low-grade Clavien-Dindo complications compared to SG and RYGB. Introduction

We read with interest the case report entitled “Dieulafoy’s Lesion related massive Intraoperative Gastrointestinal Bleeding during Single Anastomosis Gastric Bypass necessitating total Gastrectomy: A Case Report” published in Archives of Surgery and Clinical Research b Ashraf Imam et al. [1]. We appreciate the authors for managing such a complicated case and for sharing their experience but, we have some conflict about the management, and we wanted to add some comments regarding the importance of EGD before bariatric surgery. In the published case, no preoperative EGD was done and the authors mentioned that Dieulafoy’s Lesion is very unlikely to be diagnosed in the routine endoscopy. We agree with that statement but, it is not a good reason to eliminate this diagnostic modality before surgery. Though controversial, there is growing evidence which supports the importance of routine EGD prior to obesity surgery [2]. This may alter the surgical or medical plan for the obese patient, Furthermore, we have a different opinion about this patient’s management and, we wanted to share this with the authors. In the reported patient, after control of the bleeding during gastrojejunal anastomosis, the OAGB(One Anastomosis Gastric Bypass) concluded successfully but, the patient was re-intubated because of severe bloody emesis at the recovery room and then an arterial bleeding point in the posterior wall of the lesser curvature close to the esophagogastric junction was found. This does not illustrate the reason for the huge gastric remnant seen at the laparoscopy because it was at least 200 cm far from the pouch and backwards flow of blood is very unlikely. Our opinion is, due to 90% diagnostic rate and about 75-100% success in hemostasis, on-table EGD should have a more highlighted role in treatment of the reported case [3]. Even if the pouch was dilated, it was not rational to perform a total gastrectomy in such an unstable patient and a laparoscopic pouch resection followed by Roux- en-y esophagojejunostomy could be a better choice in our point of view. Moreover, Feeding gastrostomy could be a better option rather than feeding jejunostomy, if needed. In summary the essential role of endoscoy for screening the patients before bariatric surgery and, for the management of complications (though controversial), should always be kept in mind by bariatric surgeons.

Bariatric Surgery (BS) from the Greek bari = weight and iatrein = cure) treats obesity and began in Spain in 1973. Its greatest development occurs after the founding of SECO (Spanish Society of Obesity Surgery) in 1997. The purpose of this work is to reflect the changes that have occurred in these 22 years. Obesity is a multifactorial epidemic ailment of environmental origin, affecting subjects from all countries, and whose origins are not in the stomach or intestine. It represents a unique case of surgery to operate healthy organs, which are not the cause of the disease and do not improve after the operation. Henryson [1] initiated Obesity Surgery (OS) in 1952. Kremen & Linner [2] and Varco & Buchwald in Minneapolis, MN teams began the malabsorptive intestinal diversion (ID) in 1954. Payne [3] and Scott [4] developed these ID techniques in the 1960s leaving only 14-4 inches (35-10 cm) as an absorptive zone and those were abandoned in the 1970s because of their serious metabolic (malnutrition) and hepatic (liver failure) complications. Buchwald [5] initiated the ID of the last third of the intestine for hypercholesterinemia (POSCH) and showed its protective role at 25 years in the development of atherosclerosis. Now it has also been abandoned, not because of lack of effectiveness, but because of the development of nystatin in the medical control of cholesterol. Dr. Henry Buchwald remains active 67 years later, and in 2012 Barcelona was appointed as Honorary Member of the Spanish Society of Obesity Surgery (SECO) and he will participate in Madrid-IFSO 2019. Baltasar [6] published in 1991 the only three ID in Spain for hypercholesterinemia. First spanish experienceProf. Sebastián García Díaz of Seville carried out the 1st Scott-type Jejune-ileal diversion (JID) in the Virgen Macarena Hospital on 11.19.1973. He began bariatric surgery in Spain with 12 cases [7-10] and then published 20 more, the 1st work in English by a Spanish author [7] in the World Journal of Surgery in 1981. For this 2nd work he received the award by the Seville Hospital of the Five Sores in 1979 (Figure 1). His work went unnoticed for 40 years until we rescued them in 2013 [11].

Background: Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) is becoming more popular in the treatment of obesity. LSG is safe with a low morbidity. The complications rarely result in morbidity and even mortality. Leaks are the major complication associated with LSG with a reported prevalence between 1.9% and 2.4%. Objective: To compare surgical intervention and endoscopic stenting for treatment of gastric leakage after sleeve gastrectomy. Patients and method: Our study included 30 patients presented with post sleeve leaks discovered by routine postoperative imaging or during the follow up period. Patients were recruited from October 6th university hospital during the period from August 2017 to August 2019. Patients were divided to the following groups: 1) Endoscopy group: This included 15 patients with post sleeve leakage undergoing endoscopic stent insertion. 2) Surgery group: which included 15 patients with post sleeve leak age undergoing surgical management. This division was random. Results: Our study showed that Endoscopic stenting for management of post sleeve gastrectomy leakage is an effective method with lower morbidity and shorter post-operative hospital stay than surgical management. Some patients may be good candidates for early surgical intervention in type 1 leakage if managed early before dissemination of leakage and before tissues become friable. Complications of stents include stent migration (26%), stent related ulcer (13%) and stricture (13%). while the surgical intervention carries more complications (DVT, chest infection, wound infection and stricture) and longer postoperative hospital stay. Conclusion: endoscopic management of post-sleeve gastrectomy leakage with stenting is recommended because it successfully manages the leaks and avoids invasive procedures with less risk, with shorter hospital stay and early return of function.

Since December 2019, entire world is facing problem of corona-virus pandemics and its impact on the people and their social life has been phenomenal. Each part of the world is ‘almost’ hit by COVID-19 infection. Most of the COVID-19 victims were aged people followed by consequence of high death ratios as shown in data [1]. Not only aged people but people with some secondary diseases or disorder were of major concern. A special case comes across which are patients with intellectual disabilities (ID) are the most vulnerable group. They also have extra multiple disorders including respiratory diseases, diabetes, obesity, These individuals face more complications and stand at high risk of because, such people are usually mentally lethargic and have almost no literacy in to follow proper health care and access health facilities

High blood pressure (HBP) is a strong, independent and etiologically relevant risk factor for cardiovascular and therefore, the leading cause of preventable deaths worldwide. Hypertension has high medical and social costs. Due to its many associated complications, the use of medical services create high costs with medications which represent almost half of the estimated direct expenses. Free distribution of more than 15 medications for HyPERtension and DIAbetes (HIPERDIA program) clearly shows the important role of drugs in the Brazilian Government’s effort to tackle these two diseases. Notwithstanding, the prevalence of HBP is rising in parallel with other NCDs. It is known that HBP results from environmental and genetic factors, and interactions among them. Our ancestors were often faced with survival stresses, including famine, water and sodium deprivation. As results of natural selection, the survival pressures drove our evolution to shape a thrifty genotype, which favored/promoted energy-saving and sodium/water preservation. However, with the switch to a sodium- and energy-rich diets and sedentary lifestyle, the thrifty genotype and ancient frugal alleles, are no longer advantageous, and may be maladaptive to disease phenotype, resulting in hypertension, obesity and insulin resistance syndrome. Low-grade chronic inflammation and oxidative stress would be the underlying mechanisms for these diseases. HBP is often associated with unhealthy lifestyles such as consumption of high fat and/or high-salt diets and physical inactivity. Therefore, alternatively to medicine drugs, lifestyle and behavioral modifications are stressed for the prevention, treatment, and control of hypertension. A lifestyle modification program (LSM) involving dietary counseling and regularly supervised physical activity (“Move for Health”) has been used for decades, in our group, for NCDs primary care. Retrospective (2006-2016) data from 1317 subjects have shown the top quartile of blood pressure(142.2/88.5mmHg) differing from the lower quartile (120.6/69.2mmHg) by being older, with lower schooling, lower income and, lower physical activity and aerobic capacity. Additionally, the P75 showed higher intake of CHO, saturated fat and sodium along with lower-diet quality score with a more processed foods. They showed higher body fatness and prevalence of metabolic syndrome along with higher pro-inflammatory and peroxidative activities and insulin resistance. In this free-demand sample, the HBP rate was 51.2% for SBP and 42.7% for DBP. The rate of undiagnosed HBP was 9.8% and only 1/3 of medicated patients were controlled for HBP. After 10 weeks of LSM the HBP normalization achieved 17.8% for SBP and 9.3% for DBP with a net effectiveness of 8.5% and 2.4%, respectively. The reduction of HBP by LSM was followed by increased aerobic conditioning and reduced intake of processed foods along with decreased values of BMI, abdominal fatness, insulin resistance, pro-inflammatory and peroxydative activities. Importantly, once applied nationwide this LSM would save HBP medication for 3.1 million of hypertensives at an economic saving costs of US$ 1.47 billion a year!

The global obesity epidemic that was previously reported [1,2] is now to worsen with obesity to double in 73 countries around the world [3,4]. Improving the health of obese individuals by dietary restriction, anti-obese foods and increased physical activity [1] has not reduced the global obesity epidemic. Obesity is linked to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) [5,6] with complications relevant to the metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease [7]. Appetite control has become critical to endocrinology and metabolism with the apelinergic pathway and nuclear receptor Sirtuin 1 (Sirt 1) now connected to the endocrine system [8] and critical to metabolism. The apelin-Sirt 1 interaction involves nitric oxide (NO) [9] that is now considered as the defect [10] in the interaction between the peptide apelin and calorie sensitive gene Sirt 1 involved in NO imbalances in the adipose tissue, liver and the brain.

Previous clinical, observation and epidemiologic studies have demonstrated strong association between serum uric acid (SUA) and cardiovascular disease (hypertension, heart failure, and asymptomatic atherosclerosis), metabolic states (abdominal obesity, diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance) and kidney disease. There is a large body of evidence regarding the role of SUA as predictor of CV events and CV mortality in general population and individuals with established CV disease and metabolic diseases. However, SUA may exhibit protective effects on endothelium and vasculature as well as attenuate endogenous repair system through mobbing and differentiation of cell precursors. Although SUA lowering drugs are widely used in patients with symptomatic hyperuricemia and gout beyond their etiologies, there is no agreement of SUA below target level 6.0 mg/dL in asymptomatic individuals with kidney injury and CV disease and data of ones are sufficiently limited. The short communication is depicted on the controversial role of SUA as primary cell toxicity agent and secondary cell protector against hypoxia, ischemia and apoptosis

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) is globally defined as coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, or peripheral arterial disease presumed to be of atherosclerotic origin and it is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality for individuals with or without diabetes and is the largest contributor to the direct and indirect catastrophic costs of cardiovascular disorder. Very common conditions coexisting into the cardiovascular risk (e.g., obesity, hypertension, diabetes and dyslipidemia) are clear risk factors for ASCVD, and diabetes itself confers independent risk. Numerous studies have shown the efficacy of controlling individual cardiovascular risk factors in preventing or slowing ASCVD in people with these disorders. In other words it is not enough control one risk factor. We need to develop novel strategies to detect and control all of them at the same time. Thus, large benefits are seen when multiple cardiovascular risk factors are addressed simultaneously. Under the current paradigm of aggressive risk factor modification in patients with cardiovascular risk, there is evidence that measures of 10-year coronary heart disease (CHD) risk among U.S. adults with cardiovascular risk have improved significantly over the past decade and that ASCVD morbidity and mortality have decreased. In Mexico the Mexican Institute of Social Security is implementing new strategies of primary and secondary prevention in order to confront this pandemic. In this review, we analyze the state of the art to approach at the same time the different cardiovascular risk factors, in an integral form because of this is the real worldwide challenge of health.

Background: Several epidemiologic studies indicate that up to 50% of patients with heart failure have a preserved ejection fraction, and this proportion has increased over time. The knowledge of its severity and associated comorbidity is determining factor to develop adequate strategies for its treatment and prevention. This study was focus on the creation of a cohort and follow-up of Mexican population and to analyze its severity as well as its interaction with the comorbidity of other cardiovascular risk factors. Methods: We included patients from different sites of Mexico City than were sent to the Cardiology hospital of the National Medical Center in Mexico City for the realization of an echocardiogram as part of their assessment by the presence of dyspnea, edema, or suspicion of hypertensive heart disease. Complete medical history, physical examination and laboratory studies including Brain Natriuretic Peptide (BNP) serum levels were performed. Diagnosis of diastolic dysfunction was based on symptoms and echocardiographic data including time of deceleration, size of left atrium, e´ septal and e´ lateral, as well as E wave, A wave and its ratio E/A. All patients had left ventricle ejection fraction > 45%. Results: We included 168 patients with HFpEF. The most common risk factor was hypertension (89.2%), followed by overweight and obesity (> 78.5%), dyslipidemia (82.1%) and diabetes (42.8%). Women were dominant, 108 (64.3%); the mean age was 63 years old. When we classify by severity of diastolic dysfunction, we found that 41.1% were grade I, 57.1% were grade II and only 1.8% were grade III. The risk factors most strongly associated with the severity of diastolic dysfunction were hypertension, obesity and dyslipidemia. We found BNP levels highly variables, but the levels were higher detected as the ejection fraction was approaching to 45%. At one year of follow up mortality was not reported. Conclusion: HFpEF is a frequent entity in patients with cardiovascular risk factors in Mexico. The most common risk factor was hypertension. The combination of hypertension, overweight and dyslipidemia predicted the severity of diastolic dysfunction. We recommend that all Mexican patient with hypertension and overweight or obesity should be submitted as a part of its medical evaluation to an echocardiogram study in order to detect diastolic dysfunction even though the signs or symptoms are or not evident.

Today, Mexico has more than 130 million inhabitants; 85 millions of them are adults of 20 or more years old. The population pyramid is still one of base wider and this base corresponds to adults younger than 54 years old. Despite predictions made 20 years ago, about a transformation of the population pyramid shape to a mushroom shape as a consequence of more life expected and adult population growth; this change has not been occurred. Hypertension has become the biggest challenge of noncommunicable chronic diseases to public health in Mexico. Around 30% of adult Mexican population has hypertension; 75% of them have less than 54 years old (in productive age); 40% of them are unaware but only 50% of aware hypertensive population takes drugs and, 50% of them are controlled (< 140/90 mmHg). Cardiovascular risk factors including hypertension, dyslipidemia, obesity, and diabetes often cohabit in the same person and are magnified one to another in terms of common pathophysiological pathways. Atherosclerosis, arrhythmias, stroke and heart failure are common and are the final pathologic end-points and explains why cardiovascular diseases occupy first place in mortality in Mexico and worldwide. The costs of care for these diseases are billionaires and if we do not generate appropriate strategies, their global impact can become a high threat to social development of the country. The life style like nutrition, sports habits of the Mexicans must be emphasized; there is poor education about this crucial topic. This position paper is focused on the principal controversies and strategies to be developed by all, government, society, physicians, nurses, patients and all people related with healthcare of hypertension, in order to confront this huge public health problem in Mexico.

NAFLD is characterized by accumulation of fat in the liver that can lead to health complications. Previous studies have found the obesity phenotype and its components to be risk factors for the development of NAFLD. This study aims to examine the relationship between the obesity phenotype and NAFLD among each racial-ethnic group. We analyzed data from the NHANES III survey (1988-1994). The obesity phenotype was defined based on BMI and metabolic syndrome. NAFLD was defined by abdominal ultrasounds among non-alcoholics with no infection or taking drugs affecting the liver. A higher prevalence of NAFLD was found among the metabolically unhealthy obese group (43.1%) and the metabolically unhealthy overweight (29.4%) than the metabolically unhealthy normal weight (11.8%). Mexicans-Americans had higher odds of NAFLD relative to whites (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 1.3, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.01-1.9, p = 0.04). The metabolically healthy obese phenotype was associated with NAFLD (p > 0.05) in the overall sample and in Whites. The metabolically healthy overweight was associated with NAFLD only among Mexican-American (p < 0.05). Metabolically unhealthy overweight or obese had higher odds of NAFLD relative to the metabolically healthy normal weight and this relation is consistent in all the racial/ethnic groups (p < 0.05). Metabolically healthy overweight and obese individuals had a high chance of NAFLD and it varied by race/ethnicity. Healthcare providers should pay more attention to care for those who are part of the metabolically healthy overweight or obese group especially among the Mexican-American population.