Some previous studies have showed that most people who are slightly overweight can still be healthy. Contrary to this, the new study published in the Dec. 23 issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, suggests that even a few extra pounds and just a little inactivity can almost triple a man's risk of heart failure.
"What this study shows is that even overweight men who are not obese have an increase in heart failure risk," said Dr. Satish Kenchaiah, M.D., of Brigham and Women's Hospital and the lead author of the study.
To reach their findings, Dr. Kenchaiah and colleagues recruited more than 21,000 doctors ages 40 to 84 and followed them for two decades. They examined the individual and combined effects of BMI (Body Mass Indexdefine) and vigorous physical activity on heart failure incidence from 1982 to 2007.
Of the participating doctors, about 5 percent were obese, and 40 percent were overweight, when the study began.
Body Mass Index is a standard obesity measure that divides the weight by the square of the height. BMI is a simple and frequently used method for estimating body fat:
A BMI less than 18.5 is ‘underweight’
A BMI of 18.5 - 24.9 is ‘normal weight’
A BMI of 25.0 - 29.9 is ‘overweight’
A BMI of 30.0 - 39.9 is ‘obese’
A BMI of 40.0 or higher is ‘severely (or morbidly) obese’.
According to the data from the large prospective cohort study, obesity makes a person much more vulnerable to heart failure. Not only obesity, even a little bit of extra weight can augment a person’s risk of heart failure.
"Not obese, but just being overweight increases the risk of heart failure by 49 percent," said Dr. Kenchaiah.
In their study, the researchers found that overweight men were a 49 percent greater risk of heart failure that those with a body-mass index of 25 or less. In obese men, the incidence of heart failure was 180 percent compared to the leaner ones.
The researchers also looked at how physical activity affected heart failure risk. They found that obese, inactive participants had almost a 300 percent greater risk of heart failure compared with lean, active study participants.
"The lean and active group had the lowest risk and the obese and inactive group had the highest risk," Dr. Kenchaiah said.
Still, there is some good news in all of this. The researchers found that even a minimal physical exercise can help people reduce their chances of heart failure, providing a sigh of relief to more than 5 million Americans who are living with heart failure.
"Men who engaged in physical activity anywhere from one to three times a month had an 18 percent reduction in heart failure risk," Dr. Kenchaiah concluded. "For those who were active five to seven times a week, the reduction was 36 percent. The more you exercise, the more reduction you achieve."
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