title: Postmenopausal Women Have Higher HDL and Decreased Incidence of Low HDL than Premenopausal Women with Metabolic Syndrome.
abstract: It is well known that plasma lipids, waist circumference (WC) and blood pressure (BP) increase following menopause. In addition, there is a perceived notion that plasma high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) concentrations also decrease in postmenopausal women. In this cross-sectional study, we evaluated plasma lipids, fasting glucose, anthropometrics and BP in 88 post and 100 pre-menopausal women diagnosed with metabolic syndrome. No differences were observed in plasma low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol cholesterol, triglycerides, fasting glucose or systolic and diastolic BP between groups. However, plasma HDL-C was higher (p < 0.01) in postmenopausal women and the percentage of women who had low HDL (<50 mg/dL) was higher (p < 0.01) among premenopausal women. In addition, negative correlations were found between WC and HDL-C (r = -0.148, p < 0.05) and BMI and HDL-C (r = -0.258, p < 0.01) for all subjects indicating that increases in weight and abdominal fat have a deleterious effect on plasma HDL-C. Interestingly, there was a positive correlation between age and plasma HDL-C (r = 0.237 p < 0.01). The results from this study suggest that although HDL is decreased by visceral fat and overall weight, low HDL is not a main characteristic of metabolic syndrome in postmenopausal women. Further, HDL appears to increase, not decrease, with age.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA. maria-luz.fernandez@uconn.edu.
authors.forename: Maria Luz
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Fernandez
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA. ana.murillo_solis@uconn.edu.
authors.forename: Ana Gabriela
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Murillo
keywords: HDL cholesterol; age; body mass index; postmenopausal women; premenopausal women; waist circumference