Obesity, insulin resistance and Type 2 Diabetes in young Irish people

Abstract

The epidemic of obesity in Irish youth, one of the highest ranking internationally, represents a major threat to public health. However, little is known of the metabolic and clinical characteristics of this cohort. I performed a retrospective observational study of a clinic based cohort of obese Irish children. Analysis of data relating to age, body mass index and blood pressure showed that younger patients tended to have a higher degree of obesity at initial presentation, while half of the cohort had initial blood pressure measurements in the hypertensive range. There was a correlation between the degree of obesity and blood pressure elevation. In a smaller, prospective follow up study from this cohort, more detailed physiological characterisation showed that there were significant correlations between the degree of obesity and insulin resistance, dyslipidaemia and suspected fatty liver disease. Subsequently, I conducted detailed metabolic assessments of young obese people with type 2 diabetes and demonstrated marked defects in beta-cell function in addition to severe insulin resistance. Somewhat surprisingly, these parameters did not improve after twelve weeks of fully supervised aerobic exercise.