Theory goes pear shaped: ‘Apple shape’ no worse for heart
Friday 11 March 2011
A new international study funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the British Heart Foundation (BHF) challenges the idea that obese people with an apple shape (fat around the middle of the body) are at higher risk of heart attacks and strokes than obese people with other types of fat distribution.
The Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration, a consortium of 200 scientists from 17 countries led by the University of Cambridge, monitored the health of over 220,000 adults for almost a decade. The researchers found that although obesity was clearly a major indicator of heart disease in itself, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, and waist-to-hip ratio each had a similar impact on the risk of heart attack and strokes. This finding contradicts earlier studies which have suggested that those with ‘central obesity’ (as assessed by the ratio of the waist to hip circumference, or waist-to-hip ratio) have three times greater risk of heart attack than people with general obesity as assessed by BMI.
The study reveals that when information on a patient’s blood pressure, history of diabetes and fat levels are available, additional measures of BMI, waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio do not add to the picture when predicting their risk of developing heart disease.
Researchers from the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge said:
“This study shows that measuring your waist is no better for calculating your cardiovascular risk than calculating your BMI. Excess fat levels remain the main risk factor for heart disease which can of course be influenced by lifestyle choices.
The study highlights the value of GPs continuing to measure cholesterol and blood pressure levels, irrespective of body shape. The findings should help guide medical practice worldwide because national and international guidelines have provided differing recommendations about the value of measures of obesity for prediction of heart disease risk.”
Professor Stephen Holgate, chair of the MRC’s Population and Systems Medicine Board, said:
“The main concern with obesity is that it leads on to other illnesses. Around 60% of type 2 diabetes and 20% of heart disease cases are attributable to excess body fat. Six cancers are also linked to obesity. MRC scientists have been working on obesity for more than two decades and by funding this kind of gold standard research, we hope to help arm doctors and patients with the best possible evidence to help prevent, diagnose and treat diseases associated with obesity.”
MRC Press Office
Press Office number: 020 7395 2456
Email: press.office@headoffice.mrc.ac.uk
Photo by Josh Liba, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license
