RELATION OF THE PLASMA CHOLESTEROL TO OBESITY AND TO SOME OF THE COMPLICATING DEGENERATIVE DISEASES:  (DIABETES MELLITUS, ESSENTIAL HYPERTENSION, OSTEO-ARTHRITIS AND ARTERIOSCLEROSIS)

Studies of the cholesterol content of the plasma in the obese and the influence that several associated clinical conditions have on it are reported in this paper. It is important to know whether the excessive indulgence in food by human beings over a long period is associated with a rise in the cholesterol content of the blood. The relation between obesity and essential hypertension, diabetes mellitus and arteriosclerosis has been stressed for many years; the increased blood cholesterol in the latter three diseases has been frequently observed by many workers. Because of these facts, a critical investigation of the relationship between the blood cholesterol and the body weight and the degenerative diseases supposedly resulting from obesity suggested itself. Oddly enough, we were unable to find a single study in the literature in which these aspects of the subject were investigated; the published records given herewith were usually part of a