Weight Loss and Triglyceride Level Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Weight Loss and Triglyceride Level - Essay Example A diet containing more energy than needed may lead to prolonged postprandial hyperlipidaemia and to deposition of triglycerides in adipose tissues resulting in obesity. From a practical point of view, all hypotheses regarding the genesis of obesity can be put down to over-nutrition, meaning a hyper-energy food intake. If at all a relationship exists, this could make a sound basis for preventive and therapeutic recommendations (Anderson, J.W. and Hoie, L.H., 2005). Elevation of serum cholesterol is one of the factors that carry an increased risk for the development of coronary heart disease. Today, there is a vast body of evidence demonstrating a triangular causal relationship between habitual diet, blood cholesterol-lipoprotein levels, and coronary heart disease. In a very large proportion of individuals with a raised cholesterol level, the blood concentration of the triglycerides is also markedly increased. It has been claimed that correlation between triglycerides and coronary heart disease is as good as that between serum cholesterol and coronary heart disease. Research work has suggested that triglyceride levels may act as significant independent risk factors for coronary heart disease. Both cholesterol and triglycerides are associated with specific proteins in the plasma to form lipoproteins (Van Gaal, L.C., Mertens, I.L., and Ballaux, D., 2005). Thus the significance of the risk factor has not been determined, and this case study aims at finding this relationship in a small sample size of 35 obese patients with the hypothesis that restricting the consumption of fatty acids and exercise in order to reduce the body weight of these patients will reduce the triglyceride levels and would reduce the risks of coronary heart disease in these patients in a predictable manner such that a generalization can be made as to how much weight needs to be reduced to achieve a goal serum triglyceride level, and this can be calculated with the formula in a given population that matches with the patients included in this study. Characteristics of the Patients: The patients were obese. By definition, obesity is abnormal growth of the adipose tissue due to an enlargement of the fat cell size or increase in the fact cell number or a combination of both. Obesity is often expressed in terms of body mass index. The composition of the diet and the amount of energy driven from it are relevant to the aetiology of obesity. Consequently, a diet containing more energy than needed may lead to prolonged post-prandial hyperlipidaemia and to deposition of triglycerides in adipose tissue resulting in obesity. This group of patients is obese as per the previous definition. In these patients, the obesity is presumed to be due to high energy intake in the diet as opposed to the energy expenditure in the form of work or exercise (Nordmann, A.J. et al., 2006). The most important determinant of triglyceride level is the activity of the enzyme lipoprotein lipase in the endothelial lining of the capillaries of a variety of tissues including heart. If dietary fat intake is high, then the capacity of this enzyme to remove triglycerides particularly from the very low density lipoproteins and converting them to lipoproteins of the higher density would be affected. The result would be deposition of triglycerides in the media of the small arteries leading to atherosclerosis and luminal compromise leading to decreased blood flow at the time of the need. Thus the only way to reduce this risk of coronary heart disease is to reduce body weight by means of reduced consumption of fatty acids and exercise. Concomitantly, drug therapy with statins would also reduce the trigly