How’s Your BMI (Body Mass Index)?
Q: Is being "a little overweight" bad for your heart?
A:It’s long been held that very overweight people are at higher risk of heart failure than those who are not obese. But a new study suggests that even excess body weight is "strongly and independently associated" with increased risk for heart failure.Heart failure is a condition in which your heart cannot pump enough blood through the body. There are five million Americans with heart failure today. But you don’t have to be extremely overweight to have health problems. Nearly three out of 10 American adults—50 million people—are obese. More than one in three Americans are overweight.
The study by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute examined the relationship between the Body Mass Index (BMI), which is a measure of excess weight based on height, and the risk of heart failure. 5,000 cases were reviewed in the study.
"Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the United States," the study concluded, "and it is increasing." The research found that although the death rate from heart disease has dropped 60% over the last four decades, the death rate due to heart failure has not fallen. The new study marks obesity as a key risk factor for heart failure, in both men and women. If people could reach their optimal body weight, the rate of heart failure would drop, researchers said.
The new research shows that risk of heart failure rises with increasing degrees of body weight. For every increase in the Body Mass Index of 1, the risk of heart failure in men went up by 5% for men and 7% for women. Past studies have shown that being obese or overweight increases the risk of high blood pressure and diabetes, both of which are risk factors for heart failure. But this study found that obesity itself was a risk factor for heart failure.
Researchers called this study "a wake up call" especially for obese children. Over the past 20 years, the number of overweight children has doubled, and the number of overweight adolescents has tripled. These young people will become a public health problem once they become old enough to be at risk for heart failure.
The key to maintaining a healthy BMI is diet and regular physical activity. The goal is to get your BMI into the normal range. Knowing your BMI is the start to understanding your risk. Now you can measure you own BMI using a special calculator on the Internet by going to the body mass index table. For example, a person who is 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs 180 lbs. has a BMI of 28.2, which is higher than the normal range of 24.9. That person would have to lose 21 pounds to get back into the normal BMI range. The BMI calculator can help you determine if you’re overweight and if so, it can encourage you to lower your risk of health problems.