Obesity, metabolic syndrome.

The prevalence of reflux esophagitis was low in Japan but has increased in recent years. This increase might be due to the increase in the elderly population and obesity with west- ernized diets. Obesity and the metabolic syndrome cause reflux esophagitis. Increase in central obesity induces inflammation in fat tissue. Moreover, insulin resistance induces hypertension, hypertriglyceridemia and impaired glucose tolerance, and causes the metabolic...