Treatment with a dietary fat substitute decreased Arochlor 1254 contamination in an obese diabetic male

J Nutr Biochem. 2005 Jun;16(6):383-4. doi: 10.1016/j.jnutbio.2004.12.014.

Abstract

A case manifesting symptoms due to organochlorine toxicity was treated with the fat substitute olestra in his diet. Before treatment, the patient was obese, with severe type 2 diabetes mellitus and mixed hyperlipidemia, chloracne, frequent headaches, and numbness and paraesthesias of his trunk and lower limbs. Earlier attempts at weight loss had been unsuccessful due to worsening of his symptoms. After inclusion of olestra in his diet for 2 years, weight loss was successful without aggravation of his symptoms, and the patient reverted to normoglycemia and normolipidemia. Olestra may have assisted weight loss and amelioration of his diabetes by increasing fecal elimination of organochlorines, rather than by preventing the partitioning of these pollutants into tissues, where they have been reported to exert antimetabolic effects on substrate oxidation.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Adipose Tissue / metabolism
  • Chlorodiphenyl (54% Chlorine) / pharmacokinetics*
  • Chlorodiphenyl (54% Chlorine) / poisoning*
  • Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / drug therapy
  • Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / etiology
  • Fat Substitutes / pharmacology*
  • Fatty Acids / pharmacology*
  • Humans
  • Hyperlipidemias / drug therapy
  • Hyperlipidemias / etiology
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Obesity / complications
  • Obesity / drug therapy
  • Obesity / metabolism*
  • Sucrose / analogs & derivatives*
  • Sucrose / pharmacology
  • Weight Loss

Substances

  • Fat Substitutes
  • Fatty Acids
  • Chlorodiphenyl (54% Chlorine)
  • Sucrose
  • sucrose polyester