Obesity, Lifestyle & Heart Disease Published: June 22, 2008
Obesity, Lifestyle & Heart Disease Men’s News Daily (06/22/08) Wascher, Robert A. A comprehensive medical study by researchers in the United States and Denmark shows a link between obesity and heart disease. Researchers from Aarhus University, the Danish Cancer Society, and Harvard University examined 55,000 participants over a period of approximately eight years. The participants were between the ages of 50 and 64 years at the time of entry and had no evidence of heart disease or cancer. Over the course of the study, 1,127 people developed chest pains, myocardial infarction, and other coronary-artery-related complications. The doctors used body mass index (BMI) to demonstrate the correlation between weight and increased coronary artery complications in men and women. Each additional unit of BMI led to a 5 percent increase in heart disease in women and a 7 percent increase in men. Obese smokers were at greater risk of heart disease than nonsmokers who were obese.
