Correlation of increased oxidative stress to body weight in disease-free post menopausal women

ObjectivesOxidative stress increases postmenopausally, an effect attributed to aging. Increase in body weight generally accompanies menopause. Obesity per se also seems to increase oxidative stress. The question is whether postmenopausal increase in oxidative stress is related to body weight, or is only a function of age.Design and methodsAge, body weight, and superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and malonyldialdehyde (MDA) in erythrocytes of a cross-section of 90 disease-free women aged 25–65 years, divided into three groups of n = 30 each of normally menstruating Controls (C), perimenopausal (periM) and postmenopausal women (postM) were recorded.ResultsPostM had the highest oxidative stress and body weight. SOD, CAT and MDA correlated significantly with body weight (− 0.74, 0.64 and 0.69 respectively). The odds of having a lower SOD (OR9.5, 95% CI:2.9–30.8) and higher CAT (OR6.2, 95% CI:1.6–23.0) and MDA (OR6.8, 95% CI:2.7–16.8) for weight > 60 kg was highly significant.ConclusionsOxidative stress is enhanced as body weight increases.