A new research has linked increased body mass index (BMI) with risk of heart disease. A team of researchers has found that a lower body mass index (BMI) may help lower the risk of developing ischemic heart disease (IHD).
BMI in addition to age, smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol levels, and family history of the disease, has been long identified as a risk factor for heart disease.
In spite of this, the actual causal effect of BMI to heart disease risk has been very hard to calculate.
A new study that examined the causal relationship between BMI and heart disease in 76,000 individuals reached at the conclusion that an elevation in BMI of around 4kg/m2 across the life-course will up the risk of developing the disease by 50 per cent on average.
The findings were an outcome of a collaborative venture of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Centre for Causal Analyses in Translational Epidemiology (CAiTE) at the University of Bristol and colleagues from Copenhagen University Hospital.
The study used genetic data from three large Danish studies - the Copenhagen General Population Study, the Copenhagen City Heart Study and the Copenhagen Ischemic Heart Disease Study – that enabled researchers to use genetic variation known to be linked to BMI to measure the true causal effect between this and IHD.
In observational estimates, the team observed that for every 4 kg increase in BMI a 26 per cent increase in odds for developing IHD, while causal analysis identified a 52 per cent increase.
"In light of rising obesity levels, these findings are fundamental to improving public health. Our research shows that shifting to a lifestyle that promotes a lower BMI (even if it does nothing else) will reduce the odds of developing the disease," Dr Timpson, Lecturer in Genetic Epidemiology from the University's School of Social and Community Medicine has been quoted as saying.
"These findings are of key importance, as obesity linked to diabetes is the only major cardiovascular risk factor on the rise in North America and Europe, while smoking, cholesterol levels and hypertension have been decreasing." Professor Borge Nordestgaard, lead author of the study from the University of Copenhagen, said further.
PLoS Medicine has published the findings of this study.
--with inputs from ANI
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