Metabolically Healthy Obesity

BOSTON — Older adults hospitalized for an acute COPD exacerbation with vs. without metabolically healthy obesity were more likely to experience respiratory and cardiac complications, according to data presented at the CHEST Annual Meeting.

The percentage of adults with metabolically healthy obesity has increased over the past 2 decades, from 3.2% in 1999-2002 to 6.6% in 2015-2018, recent data show.

The percentage of adults with metabolically healthy obesity increased from 1999 to 2018 but remains much smaller than the proportion of those with metabolically unhealthy obesity, according to study data.

NEW ORLEANS — In this video exclusive, James R. Gavin III, MD, PhD, talks with Jamy D. Ard, MD, about the misleading concept of metabolically healthy obesity, its effect of delaying early treatment and the benefit of small weight losses.

People with obesity and a healthy metabolic profile have a higher risk for heart failure and respiratory disease compared with adults without obesity, according to a study published in Diabetologia.

Obesity typically associates with metabolic abnormalities and increased risks for developing CVD and diabetes.

Even without a diagnosis of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, adults with metabolically healthy obesity are nearly twice as likely to develop diabetes as those considered to have metabolically healthy normal weight, according to data published in Diabetes Metabolism Research Reviews.