ABSTRACT
Introduction Menopause is an important milestone in the lives of women. Despite it being a natural phenomenon, menopause brings a lot of changes in a woman's life, which significantly affects their health and well-being. Menopause involves the cessation of hormone production necessary for menstrual cycles and fertility of females. The absence of these hormones may disturb the homeostasis of minerals, blood glucose, and lipid parameters and predispose women to several health conditions affecting different organs. Obesity has been identified as one of the several conditions that influence the health of women. Therefore, assessing women's health before menopause may improve understanding of their well-being and predict problems during and after menopause. The present study evaluated the activities of calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, fasting blood glucose (FBG), and lipid parameters in obese and nonobese premenopausal women. Methods The present study included 90 obese and 110 nonobese premenopausal women attending the General Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynaecology Departments of Gandhi Medical College and Hospital (GMC&H), Secunderabad, Telangana, India. The body mass index (BMI) was measured in all the study participants to put them under obese and nonobese categories. Blood samples were collected from all the study participants for the estimation of the activities of minerals like calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, FBG, and lipid parameters including total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), very low-density lipoproteins (VLDL), low-density lipoproteins (LDL), and high-density lipoproteins (HDL). Results The results demonstrated a significant difference in the activities of lipid parameters (TC-obese (158.90 ± 20.20 mg/dl) versus nonobese (148.7 ± 18.6 mg/dl), p < 0.05; TG-obese (143.1 ± 58.2 mg/dl) versus nonobese (118.40 ± 55.80 mg/dl), p < 0.01; VLDL-obese (28.30 ± 11.50 mg/dl) versus nonobese (23.30 ± 11 mg/dl), p < 0.05; LDL-obese (92 ± 30.30 mg/dl) versus nonobese (73.90 ± 26.10 mg/dl), p < 0.01; HDL-obese (61.60 ± 12.50) versus nonobese (65.30 ± 11.25 mg/dl), p < 0.01), FBG (obese (106.80 ± 32.20 mg/dl) versus nonobese (88.50 ± 42.60 mg/dl); p < 0.01)), and magnesium (obese (1.79 ± 0.36 mg/dl) versus nonobese (2.42 ± 0.67 mg/dl); p < 0.01)). However, the activities of calcium (obese (9 ± 0.54 mg/dl) vs. nonobese (8.9 ± 0.58); p > 0.05)) and phosphorous (obese (3.84 ± 0.53 mg/dl) versus nonobese (3.75 ± 0.46 mg/dl); p > 0.05)) was found to be similar in obese and nonobese premenopausal women. Conclusions The results suggest that obese premenopausal women revealed lowered activities of magnesium that can predispose them to chronic diseases like cardiovascular diseases. In addition, obese women showed higher activities of FBG that predisposes them to type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). There was significant variation in the lipid parameters among obese and nonobese women. However, serum calcium and phosphorous were similar in obese and nonobese premenopausal women.
