title: Effect of weight reduction on concentration of plasma total homocysteine in obese Japanese men.
abstract: CONCLUSIONS
  
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To test whether weight reduction would lower tHcys concentration, and whether adding exercise training to dietary weight reduction would further reduce tHcys concentration over diet alone.
  
  
  METHODS
  A randomized, controlled, prospective, 14-week weight-loss intervention.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty-eight obese Japanese men aged 27-66 years were assigned to 2 subgroups depending on the type of treatment: diet alone (DA) and diet plus exercise training (DE). Concentration of tHcy was measured in frozen plasma samples by an HPLC method.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Body weight decreased significantly for both groups: DA -7.8 ± 3.2 kg and DE -9.1 ± 3.6 kg. A significant decrease was found in tHcys concentration of the DE group (-2.3 ± 5.0 μmol/L) but not of the DA (-0.3 ± 2.7 μmol/L). For subjects with hyperhomocysteinemia (≥15 μmol/L, n = 17), tHcys concentration decreased from 20.1 ± 7.0 to 13.9 ± 3.0 μmol/L (p < 0.01) for the DE group (n = 8) but did not change for the DA group (16.6 ± 1.9 μmol/L → 15.4 ± 2.3 μmol/L, n = 9). Furthermore, to consider a statistical phenomenon "regression to the mean", we excluded two subjects with the highest two tHcys values of the DE group. The DE group (n = 7) still displayed a significant reduction after the exclusion.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A weight reduction with diet alone did not improve tHcy levels. Adding aerobic exercise training to a dietary weight-reduction program may be effective for a reduction in tHcy.
authors.affiliation: Center for TARA (Tsukuba Advanced Research Alliance), University of Tsukuba, Japan. Electronic address:okura@taiiku.tsukuba.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Tomohiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Okura
authors.affiliation: Center for TARA (Tsukuba Advanced Research Alliance), University of Tsukuba, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshio
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nakata
authors.affiliation: Center for TARA (Tsukuba Advanced Research Alliance), University of Tsukuba, Japan.
authors.forename: Kazunori
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ohkawara
authors.affiliation: Center for TARA (Tsukuba Advanced Research Alliance), University of Tsukuba, Japan.
authors.forename: Shigeharu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Numao
authors.affiliation: Center for TARA (Tsukuba Advanced Research Alliance), University of Tsukuba, Japan.
authors.forename: Yasutomi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Katayama
authors.affiliation: Center for TARA (Tsukuba Advanced Research Alliance), University of Tsukuba, Japan.
authors.forename: Yohei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ono
authors.affiliation: Center for TARA (Tsukuba Advanced Research Alliance), University of Tsukuba, Japan.
authors.forename: Tomoaki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Matsuo
authors.affiliation: Center for TARA (Tsukuba Advanced Research Alliance), University of Tsukuba, Japan.
authors.forename: Hirohito
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sone
authors.affiliation: Center for TARA (Tsukuba Advanced Research Alliance), University of Tsukuba, Japan.
authors.forename: Kiyoji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tanaka