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HowToPreventHeartDisease.com |
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Is Fat But Fit Theory Valid? People with a BMI (body mass index) of 30 or greater are considered obese, according to the National Institutes of Health, and people with BMIs of 25 to 25.9 are classified as overweight. Overweight and obesity are believed to be the culprits that cause a number of chronic diseases including heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, Type-2 diabetes, stroke and certain cancers. Some studies have, however, indicated that people who are obese can be physically healthy and fit, and these people are not at a higher risk of heart disease or cancer, which contradicts the general belief. A paper published online September 4, 2012 in ‘European Heart Journal’ by researchers from the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, the University of Granada, Spain and the University of South Carolina, USA revealed that the metabolic healthy obese people were significantly less likely to develop a cardiovascular disease (heart disease and stroke) or cancer, or die as a result, than people who were similarly obese but were metabolic unhealthy. They also pointed out that the risks of cardiovascular diseases and cancers in people who are metabolic healthy but obese were broadly similar to people with a healthy weight. One was classified as metabolic healthy if he or she had only one or no risk factors for metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome means people have multiple risk factors like high blood pressure, that place them at a higher risk of getting diabetes or cardiovascular disease. While this was an impressive study that examined a large sample size, it did not actually suggest that being obese is healthy. In fact, the argument that people can be obese and remain completely healthy was refuted by another study conducted by a group of British researchers. They found that people who were obese with no signs of risk factor for heart disease might eventually end up with heart disease. It is just a matter of time.
More than 2,500 men and women aged between 39 and 62 were followed for 20 years. 75 percent of the participants were males. Their BMI, cholesterol levels, blood pressures, fasting glucose levels and insulin resistance levels were tracked. Heart disease risk factors eventually appeared among many of the study participants who were obese, as reported in their paper published online January 5, 2015 in the ‘Journal of the American College of Cardiology’. The researchers warned that the state of so-called healthy obesity should instead be treated as a high risk state because over the long term, it is very likely to progress to unhealthy obesity rather than staying stable or becoming healthy non-obese. Healthy obesity was defined in the study as obesity with no metabolic risk factors for heart disease. Over the period of 2 decades, there was a trend for the healthy obese participants to develop risk factors including diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. When the study ended, more than 51 percent of had become the unhealthy obese. At the outset of the study, among 2,521 study participants, 181 were classified as obese, with 66 of those people classified as healthy. After 5 years, 32 percent of the healthy obese people had developed risk factors. At 10, 15 and 20 years, 41, 35, and 51 percent had respectively been moved to unhealthy obese group. While people want to have some sort of confirmation on the fact that being obese is not that bad at all time and there might actually be a very small number of obese people who can maintain good health, the majority would not be able to achieve over the long term. Obesity rate has been climbing since several decades ago. In Canada, for instance, it was estimated that 21 percent of Canadians will be obese and with a spike in the very obese category by 2019. In 1985, the obesity rate was only 6 percent. Obesity has obviously become a tricky issue for many nations because of the huge health cost burden it will bring along.
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