14 DAY TRIAL // Aside from the classic problems associated to obesity, such as heart conditions and diabetes, researchers warn about another previously unknown problem: the injectable drugs' impossibility to get past the fat tissue located in the buttocks and reach the muscle.
Scientists at The Adelaide and Meath Hospital in Dublin used a CAT scan to follow intramuscular injections in 50 patients of different sizes and shapes, half men and half women, and found that, on average, almost 70 percent of the dose did not get through the derriere's fatty tissue to reach the muscle.
It has been taken for granted that once the needle introduces the medicine, it is going to be absorbed and do its job", said Victoria O. Chan, the lead investigator of the study. "But the majority of medicine never reached the muscle."
The success rate among men was 56 percent, while the success rate among women was only 8 percent, meaning 23 of 25 women did not receive injections into the muscle.
This can be explained by the fact that women have more fat in those body parts than men.
The more fat tissue there is in the buttock, the less likely the needle will reach the muscles underneath that fat", Dr. Chan said.
The conclusion of the test is that doctors have to adapt their needles depending on the size of the patient.