Obesity and Heart Damage

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Heart damage can occur in obese people without causing symptoms, and take place without other heart risk factors such as diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, a new study says.
The researchers said their findings about this silent heart damage challenge the common belief that the risk of heart disease in obese people is mainly due to diabetes and high blood pressure, which are common in obese people.
"Obesity is a well-known 'accomplice' in the development of heart disease, but our findings suggest it may be a solo player that drives heart failure independently of other risk factors that are often found among those with excess weight," said lead investigator Dr. Chiadi Ndumele, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease.
The study included more than 9,500 heart disease-free people, ages 53 to 75, in Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi and North Carolina who were followed for more than 12 years. During that time, 869 of them developed heart failure. From many studies that I have personally read, Your heart is fully developed when you reach adult age, somewhere between 18 and 22 for most people. Any weight you gain after that will put extra strain on your heart and other organs. Once you reach adult age, that's the way your body should stay. That is the ideal size for you to be.

Severely obese people were more than twice as likely to develop heart failure as those with normal weight, the researchers found. The more obese a person was, the greater the risk of heart failure. Obesity increases the risk of heart muscle damage and the risk for heart failure, and this damage often has no symptoms, according to the study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Heart Failure.
Heart failure refers to the heart's inability to pump blood as it should.
"The direct relationship we found between obesity and heart damage is quite real and truly concerning from a public health standpoint given the growing number of obese people in the United States and worldwide," published in a Hopkins news release.
Findings show obese people, even when free of cardiovascular symptoms, should be monitored for the earliest signs of heart failure and counseled on ways to improve their lifestyle habits.
-- Robert Preidt

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