Connections between obesity and dyslipidaemia

The importance of the obesity-lipid connection has suffered from the traditional reductionism view of science. Excess body weight has rarefy been deemed an independent risk factor for coronary heart disease, directing physicians to target therapies towards the risk factors that excess body weight modifies (e.g. raising HDL, lowering blood pressure) instead of targeting the cause. The efforts of Adult Treatment Panel III to define and identify the metabolic syndrome as a secondary target may spur practitioners to revisit the need for weight management in patients with lipid disorders. Curr Opin Lipidol 12:625-628. (C), 2001 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.