Originally published February 21 2006
Study suggests overweight middle-aged people should watch out for excess weight
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Lijing Yan, a researcher at Northwestern and Peking University, led a study that followed 17,643 patients for three decades and determined that being overweight in middle age increased risk for dying of heart disease in later years.
Middle-age people who are overweight but have normal blood pressure and cholesterol levels are kidding themselves if they think their health is just fine.
Northwestern University researchers tracked 17,643 patients for three decades and found that being overweight in mid-life substantially increased the risk of dying of heart disease later in life -- even in people who began the study with healthy blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
Both are common in people who are too fat, and often are thought to explain why overweight people are more prone to heart disease.
But there is a growing body of science suggesting that excess weight alone is an independent risk factor for heart attacks, strokes and diabetes.
The new study fits with that evolving school of thought and contrasts with a controversial government study published last year that suggested excess weight might not be as deadly as previously thought.
"The take-home message would be pay more attention to your weight even if you don't have an unhealthy risk factor profile yet," said lead author Lijing Yan, a researcher at Northwestern and Peking University.
The researchers tracked deaths from cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and hospitalizations for those conditions, starting at age 65.
Among participants with normal blood pressure and cholesterol at the start, those who were obese -- or grossly overweight -- were 43 percent more likely than normal-weight participants to die of heart disease later on.
Yan said it is possible that some overweight participants developed high blood pressure and cholesterol problems during the study, which could have contributed to their deaths.
The study "will help define obesity as a disease" in itself, said Dr. Samuel Klein, an obesity expert at Washington University in St. Louis.
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