Excess Weight Weighs Heavily for Cardiac Risks

New data suggests that we overturn the notion that the adverse health effects of overweight are generally inconsequential so long as the individual is metabolically healthy.  Borge G. Nordestgaard, from Copenhagen University Hospital (Denmark), and colleagues studied data collected of 71,527 men and women enrolled in the Copenhagen General Population Study, for whom BMI, waist measurement, blood pressure and lab tests to identify Metabolic  Syndrome were conducted. The team found that among subjects who did not have Metabolic Syndrome, the hazard ratio for heart attack compared to normal weight participants was 1.26 in overweight individuals and 1.88 and those who were obese. Submitting that: “These findings suggest that overweight and obesity are risk factors for [myocardial infarction] and [ischemic heart disease] regardless of the presence or absence of metabolic syndrome and that metabolic syndrome is no more valuable than BMI in identifying individuals at risk.”