obesity: Nearly a third of the world’s population is now overweight or obese. “This data is alarming because it is well established that a high BMI in middle age increases the risk of developing heart disease and other conditions,” said Ida Karlsson, assistant professor in the Karolinska Institute’s Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Results from the Karolinska Institutet report in eClinicalmedicine. There has been a global increase in the incidence of overweight and obesity over the past few years.
However, according to this new study, the risk of developing heart disease varies widely among people who are obese. The researchers used data from more than 15,000 twins from the Swedish Twin Registry, collecting information about their BMI and their genetic predisposition to high BMI. They also used data from medical registries to establish the incidence of heart disease in this group.
By analyzing this information, the researchers were able to study how overweight and obesity affect heart disease risk as a result of genetic versus environmental and lifestyle factors. “The link between obesity and heart disease was twice as strong in people with a genetic predisposition to low BMI than it was in people with obesity driven by genetic factors,” says Ida Carlson, last author of the study.
Dr. Carlson stressed that a healthy lifestyle is always important for everyone and that everyone who was overweight or obese had a higher risk of heart disease than people of a healthy weight. However, the findings also indicate that obesity driven primarily by genetic factors may not have the same adverse health effects as obesity driven by other factors such as lifestyle. “Obesity is a complex common disease that can have many different causes,” she says.
“Since it is so stigmatized, the results may help us understand why its effects on health differ from person to person.” She added: “Even though we all know that tackling obesity takes more than exercise and diet, there is still a huge stigma attached to it. A lot can be achieved by focusing on it.” to minimize the risk of comorbidity in each individual rather than focusing primarily on BMI.”