Key result
Metabolically healthy obesity represents a transient phase toward metabolic syndrome rather than a benign condition.
Why the study?
The risk of diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases in metabolically healthy obese individuals compared with metabolically unhealthy obese remains controversial.
MHO warrants no change in obesity management; review leaves open whether it represents a stable low-risk state or transient phase.
Obesity presents one of the biggest issues of modern-day life for a wide variety of medical specialties, starting with the cardiologist and ending with the diabetologist or the bariatric surgeon. However, in the last few years a new entity has emerged, the metabolically healthy obese (MHO) individual. This category encompasses obese individuals without the presence of metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, or hypertension. Several studies have thus been undertaken to determine the risk of these MHO individuals for diabetes mellitus or cardiovascular diseases compared with the 'unhealthy' obese. Data are still controversial on this matter, but one trend seems to be emerging: MHO is but a transient phase in the path toward insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome.
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Gaiță et al. (2017) conducted a review in Obesity. Metabolically healthy obesity (MHO) vs. Metabolically unhealthy obesity was evaluated. Metabolically healthy obesity (MHO) appears to be a transient phase in the path toward insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome rather than a permanently benign condition.
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