Middle Age Obesity Raises Heart Disease & Diabetes Risk
Middle age obesity in middle age, even without established cardiovascular disease risk factors such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol levels, greatly increases risk of hospitalization for and death from heart disease and diabetes in older age (65 years and more), according to a study in the Jan. 11 issue of the JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association.
Lijing Yan, assistant professor of preventive medicine, and colleagues at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine assessed the relationship of body mass index (BMI) earlier in life with hospitalization for and death from cardiovascular disease and diabetes in older age (65 years and older).
Study participants were men and women aged 31 through 64 years from the Chicago Heart Association Detection Project in Industry who were free of coronary heart disease, diabetes or major heart rhythm abnormalities at the beginning of the study in 1967.
Results of this exceptionally long study which started in 1967 showed that having a normal BMI in young adulthood and middle age confers significant health benefits at all levels of traditional risk factors.
Source: JAMA via News-Medical
Filed under Diabetes, Health, Heart Disease, Obesity
