Obesity and a bulky waist are good for the cores

In case of heart failure
excess weight turns out to be a boon

Elvira Koshkina, Compulenta

A slim waist and a normal weight are usually associated with good health. What if we're talking about people with heart failure? Which waistline "suits" them more? As scientists from the University of California at Los Angeles (USA) have found, in men and women suffering from this disease, obesity and an impressive waistline are factors that reduce the risk of death.

In the USA alone, heart failure is the scourge of 5.8 million people (2.5 million of them are women). From one third to two thirds of these patients are overweight or are classified as obese.

Experts analyzed data on patients with heart failure who were treated at the University of California Medical Center in the period from 1983 to 2011. In particular, 2,718 people were evaluated who had a body mass index (BMI) at the beginning of the course of treatment, and 469 who provided information about the waist size before taking medications.

Using standardized measures, the researchers classified men and women as having a high BMI if it was greater than or equal to were equivalent to 25. The list includes both obese patients (with a BMI of 25 to 29.9) and obese (30 or more). In men, the waist was considered large if it was 102 cm and above, and in women – 88 cm and above.

After two years of follow-up, it was found that in men, a wide waist and a high BMI were associated with so-called eventless survival without an adverse outcome, that is, without death, the need for heart transplantation or the installation of a ventricular pacemaker. Women with a high BMI were also more likely to have a favorable outcome compared to their peers of normal weight. The same applied to ladies who could not boast of a thin waist.

On the contrary, a normal BMI increased the probability of an unfavorable outcome by 34% in men and 38% in women, and a "healthy" waist size doubled the risk of problems in men and tripled in women.

Researchers explain this paradox as follows: obesity benefits patients with heart failure by increasing muscle mass and metabolic reserves in the form of adipose tissue. In addition, in the presence of excess weight, the level of serum lipoproteins increases, which can play an anti-inflammatory role by neutralizing circulating toxins and inflammation-related proteins.

The results of the study (Clark et al., The Obesity Paradox in Men Versus Women With Systolic Heart Failure) are published in the American Journal of Cardiology.

Prepared based on the materials of the University of California at Los Angeles:
Rachel Champeau, Obesity, larger waist size associated with better outcomes in heart failure patients.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru05.07.2012