HYPERTENSION, OBESITY AND HYPERGLYCEMIA

The association of hyperglycemia and hypertension has been observed repeatedly and there has been a considerable literature accumulated which has to show that these two conditions are by no means unusual in combination. 1 The common relation of obesity to hypertension has likewise been appreciated for many years, but the frequency with which hyperglycemia occurs in obesity is a more recent observation. It would seem reasonable to expect that if hypertension and hyperglycemia are frequently associated, if obesity and hypertension are likewise often linked together and if hyperglycemia is common in the obese, it is quite likely that these three disturbed physiologic states would be prone to occur together, rather than in combination of any two of them. Such has been our experience. We have observed in a group of thirty obese patients with hypertension sugar tolerance curves that approach those of the diabetic patient. This group composed most of