By Sean Delaney
Overweight or obese but otherwise healthy women are at a higher risk of cardiovascular disease than healthy women of normal weight, according to a large study.
The study followed 90,257 women aged 33–55 over a 30-year period and found that obesity remained a risk factor for cardiovascular disease even when women remained metabolically healthy – defined as the absence of diabetes, hypertension and hypercholesterolaemia – over long periods of time. Individuals with a BMI >25 were more likely to have a stroke or heart attack than women of normal weight. This evidence contradicts the ‘fat but fit’ theory, which suggests that carrying extra weight is not harmful if blood glucose, blood pressure and cholesterol are within recommended limits.
Commenting on the study, Dr Kevin Fernando, GPwSI in Diabetes in North Berwick, told diabetesonthenet.com: “This confirms that ‘healthy’ obesity is a myth; obesity is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease and we should be reinforcing lifestyle advice and encouraging weight loss at every opportunity regardless of patients’ metabolic health.”
Participants in the cohort study completed questionnaires about their BMI, health and lifestyle every 2 years between 1980 and 2010. In addition to finding that obesity is a risk factor for heart attack and stroke, it was found that the majority of women with healthy normal weight at the start of the study developed hypertension, high cholesterol or diabetes as they got older, even if their BMI remained <25.
The study leader, Professor Matthias Schultz from the German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbrücke, told BBC News that: “Our findings highlight the importance of preventing the development of metabolic diseases. They suggest that even individuals in good metabolic health may benefit from early behavioural management to improve their diet and increased physical activity in order to guard against progression to poor metabolic health.” The paper has been published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.
