Heart Attack Risk From Obesity Evaluated
Written by Jamie Stowe | Monday, 22 September 2008 | There are 0 comments
By making use of a huge United States registry of heart attack data 
A huge research project conducted in America on over 110,000 men and women all of whom had suffered heart attacks has highlighted the dangers of obesity on the heart and even suggests that being obese is much more dangerous than smoking. The study results show that by being obese you are likely to have a heart attack 10 years before people who are of a normal weight.
The research which was led by Dr Peter McCullough from the William Beaumont Hospital in Michigan, USA was trying to determine the real facts and figures about the elevated risk of obesity in men and women who were obese. Previous research projects had always been limited by the smaller numbers of participants who had to be of all different sizes in order to make the research accurate. By making use of a huge United States registry of heart attack data over a six year period the researchers were able to get a clearer picture of how obesity elevates the heart attack risk.
Dr Peter McCullough explained that obese people tend to have heart attacks earlier than normal weight individuals due to cholesterol and fat building up in the arteries around the heart and that from his research they could show that very obese individuals had their first heart attack at the average age of 59. The thinnest group of people had heart attacks at the average age of 75.
Dr McCullough explained that the second most dangerous thing according to their research was smoking which was only seen to be marginally less dangerous than obesity. Very obese men and women on average shortened their lives by twelve years prior to their first heart attack and smoking produced a loss of ten years.
People who have suffered heart attacks often end up with a much reduced quality of life and greatly regret having lived unhealthily. It is important and men and women realise that obesity is not safe or normal and that doctors should pressurise patients into losing weight by highlighting the dangers.
