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Fatal
Heart Attacks Are Not
Caused By Obesity Alone
Being overweight or obese, in the absence of high blood pressure,
does not clearly increase the risk of death from heart attack
or stroke, French researchers report in the journal Hypertension:
Journal of the American Heart Association.
"The role of obesity and overweight as independent risk factors
for (heart attack and stroke) is still debated," Dr. Athanase
Benetos and colleagues from the Center d'Investigations Preventives
et Cliniques in Paris write.
The team studied the impact of overweight on fatal heart attacks
or strokes according to the presence or absence of associated
risk factors, such as high blood pressure and diabetes, in more
than 240,000 adults who had a standard health checkup between
1972 and 1988 and were followed for an average of 14 years.
Forty-two percent of the men and 21 percent of the women were
overweight and about 5 percent in each group were obese. In both
sexes, the rate of high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol
increased significantly with increasing overweight status.
During follow-up, 2949 men and 929 women died of heart attack
or stroke.
Overweight subjects without associated risk factors did not have
an increased risk of heart attack or stroke death compared with
normal weight subjects.
However, men and women who were overweight and had high blood
pressure had about double the risk for heart attack or stroke
death relative to men and women who were overweight with normal
blood pressure.
In both men and women, being overweight and having diabetes only
or high cholesterol only did not increase the risk of death from
heart attack or stroke.
By contrast, in the presence of high blood pressure, the risk
of heart attack or stroke death "dramatically increased" in overweight
subjects with high cholesterol or diabetes.
High blood pressure was the most important factor associated
with increased risk of heart attack or stroke deaths in overweight
subjects, Benetos said in a statement. Therefore, the best way
to reduce risk is through "treatment that targets both blood pressure
and weight reduction."
The finding, Dr. Frank B. Hu of the Harvard School of Public
Health added in a related editorial, "underscores the importance
of (high blood pressure) as a mechanism through which obesity
causes" heart attacks and strokes.
SOURCE: Hypertension, September 2005.
Reference
Source 89
September
21, 2005
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