Obesity and Diabetes II

The one issue we discussed yesterday in class that really caught my attention was the cultural differences and disposition to obesity and diabetes. It was the last research article that I enjoyed the most. The article compared the CRP levels (a possible marker for silent inflammation) of South Asian and European men and women. The article stated that the median CRP level in South Asian women was nearly double that in European women (1.35 vs 0.70mg=1, P .0.05). I found this interesting because we didn't cover much information on the subject in class, so I did some research of my own and found this article...

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/540922

A section of this article addresses an interesting topic we discussed in class regarding how normal BMI's may need to be altered to account for gender and cultural differences. Under the section titled "Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders" there is a table that highlights this. My only question to this would be how they accounted for the differences. What criteria did they consider?

I also liked how the article addressed possible reasons for why different cultures might have a higher incidence of diabetes. They talked about genetic differences, access to healthcare, and socioeconomic barriers to buying healthy foods and medication. The article is broken down into different sections by each race that was studied and it talks about the different initiatives that are underway to try and slow down the diabetes epidemic. If you have the time, it's a great article to read. Let me know what you think!