Kanmani Karthikkeyan¹,
Vidhya A²,
Sugantha Priya S³,
Viji Devanand⁴
Shabina B⁵
¹Associate Professor,
²Assistant Professor,
³Post Graduate,
⁴Professor & HOD
⁵Assistant Professor
Department of Physiology,
Stanley Medical College,
Chennai – 600 001,
Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

• Background: Obesity is a metabolic disorder with excessive accumulation of fat that has adverse effects on health. It increases the risk of health complications such as Hypertension, Diabetes mellitus-II, Metabolic syndrome, Cardiovascular diseases, Stroke, Cancers, Infertility, and also micronutrient deficiency. Magnesium is a cofactor of the enzyme systems that regulate various biochemical reactions in the body.
• Aim: To assess the serum magnesium level in obese young adults.
• Materials and Methods: 60 participants, of which 30 obese and 30 healthy subjects with normal BMI, in the age group of 18 to 35 years were recruited from the Non-Communicable Disease Outpatient. Body Mass Index (BMI), Waist Circumference (WC) and Waist Hip Ratio (WHR) were the obesity indices used to assess the obesity. Serum magnesium level was estimated in them.
• Results: The data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. The study group were with the mean age of 22.87 + 3.76 years, mean BMI of 29.16 + 2.14, mean WC of 96.84 + 6.96, mean WHR of 0.9 + 0.03, mean serum magnesium level of 1.39 + 0.26. Among the study group 70 %(n=21) of the participants had serum magnesium level less than 1.7 mg/dl and 30 % (n=9) had normal serum magnesium level with range of 1.8 to 2.4 mg /dl. Negative correlation was observed between serum magnesium level and all the obesity indices.
• Conclusion: Serum magnesium level was reduced in obese individuals and was inversely related to the obesity indices. Hence early diagnosis and appropriate interventions may prevent the complications of magnesium deficiency in obese individuals.

Keywords: diabetes, hypertension, hypomagnesemia, obesity