• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

The “Obesity Paradox” Doesn’t Exist

March 23, 2023 by Deborah Bloomfield

The idea that overweight or obese people more often survive after heart failure, called the “obesity paradox”, is likely to be false, according to new research. By looking at waist-to-height ratio instead of body mass index (BMI), the researchers discovered that the mysterious correlation disappears, putting further question to BMI as a medical metric. 

Identified by a few different studies, there is an apparent correlation between higher BMI and survival after diagnosis of chronic heart disease, despite excess weight increasing the likelihood of developing the disease. It is counterintuitive and has long been questioned by scientists, with various explanations being put forward: some believe that fat could be protective against heart damage in some unknown way; while others believe the answer lies in BMI being a poor measure of obesity, as opposed to the obesity paradox being an actual health phenomenon. 

Advertisement

“It has been suggested that living with obesity is a good thing for patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction – which is when the main chamber of the heart is unable to squeeze out the normal amounts of blood. We knew this could not be correct and that obesity must be bad rather than good. We reckoned that part of the problem was that BMI was a weak indicator of how much fatty tissue a patient has,” said Professor John McMurray, lead author of the study, in a statement. 

To this end, a research team from the University of Glasgow looked to find a more representative measure of body fat. The researchers began by taking a diverse cohort of 1,832 women and 6,567 men who were hospitalized with heart failure and matched them with BMI scores, once again finding that higher-BMI patients fared better post-disease. 

They then went on to adjust these results for different measurements, mainly waist-to-height ratio, waist-to-hip ratio, and waist circumference, but also taking into account biomarkers such as natriuretic peptides, which are the best markers of heart failure according to the researchers. Once they controlled for these, the correlation quickly collapsed. 

They did, however, notice a strong correlation between high BMI, high waist-to-height ratio, and the onset of heart failure, indicating that it is an entirely negative relationship. 

Advertisement

The results indicate that BMI is not a strong indicator of obesity-related health risks, and researchers should explore other metrics as alternatives. The authors note that the study should look to more accurately take measurements and to take them over a longer period to adjust for any changes if they were to improve the findings, but they add to a growing body of evidence that BMI should probably be avoided in healthcare. 

“Would it be feasible to assume that an American professional wrestler (more muscle) and a Japanese sumo wrestler (more fat) with the same BMI would have a similar risk of cardiovascular disease? The same is true for persons such as Arnold Schwarzenegger in his younger years when he starred as the ‘Terminator’ with a BMI of ~30 kg/m2,” writes Professor Stephan von Haehling. 

The study is published in the European Heart Journal, along with an accompanying editorial.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Poland condemns jailing of Belarus protest leaders
  2. China energy crunch triggers alarm, pleas for more coal
  3. China proposes adding cryptocurrency mining to ‘negative list’ of industries
  4. Stranded Dolphins’ Brains Show Signs Of Alzheimer’s-Like Disease

Source Link: The "Obesity Paradox" Doesn't Exist

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • The “Great Halloween Solar Storms”: 22 Years Ago, One Of The Most Powerful CMEs Ever Hit Earth
  • IFLScience Investigates The Loch Ness Monster: A Documentary On The Science, The Story, And The Power Of Belief
  • Remarkably Preserved 23-Million-Year-Old “Frosty” Rhino Discovered In Canadian Arctic
  • Want To “Time Travel” Back To Your Childhood? Baby Filter Image Illusion Could Unlock Lost Memories
  • The Sun Is Giving Us A Spooky Grimace Just In Time For Halloween
  • Comet 3I/ATLAS Reaches Perihelion Today – “Alien Spaceship” Hypothesis To Be Tested Once And For All
  • Search For Shackleton’s “Lost” Ship Uncovered 1,000 Dimples On The Antarctic Seafloor – What Are They?
  • Your Banana Smoothie Might Be Kind Of Self-Defeating, Health-Wise
  • What Are Those Zigzags You See In Spiders’ Webs? Study Finds They Could Be A Kind Of Alarm System
  • The Deepest Fish Ever Filmed Was Found 8,336 Meters Below The Surface In A Vast Ocean Trench
  • Supersonic Flight Without The Boom: NASA’s X-59 Experimental Aircraft Takes Flight For First Time
  • The Oldest Ice Ever Recovered Contains Antarctic Air Bubbles From 6 Million Years Ago
  • Freaky “Frankenstein” Worms Can Get Reproduction Wrong And End Up With Two Heads
  • Hedgehog, Lasagna, and Brussels Sprouts: Meet 2025’s Newly Named North Atlantic Right Whales
  • Can You Be Allergic To Other People? Yes, And It Sounds Like The Worst Thing Ever
  • Animals With “Urban Superpowers” Lurk In London’s Underground, And Some Of Them Want To Drink Your Blood
  • This Is The Largest Radio Color Image Of The Milky Way Ever Assembled – And It’s Gorgeous
  • Why We Can’t Stop Watching True Crime: The Psychological Pull And The Ethical Push
  • “Silent, Ongoing Genocide”: World’s 196 Uncontacted Tribes Are Facing Grave Threats To Their Survival
  • Golden Tigers Are Among The Rarest Big Cats In The World, But They Spell Bad News For Tigers
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version