Can Exercise Alone Prevent Heart Disease for Overweight?

When one is overweight or obese, the risk of developing many health problems also raises. These include diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure), stroke, heart disease, etc. Some health experts even link certain types of cancer to obesity.

Research shows that fat cells produce chemicals that can speed up hardening of the arteries and increase inflammation thus harming blood vessels. Meanwhile, physical activity can make for healthier blood vessels and reduce the risk of blood clots.

However, researchers from Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center found that exercise would not reduce the risk of heart disease for those who are overweight or obese unless they slim down too. The findings, which were published on April 28, 2008 in the Archives of Internal Medicine, argued that even high quantities of physical activity are highly impossible to reverse the risk of coronary heart disease in overweight or obese women unless they also lose weight.

Basing on information from a study of nearly 39,000 women that began in 1992, the study traced a number of health issues. In the study, 34 percent of the women were physically activity based on government guidelines, 31 percent were overweight and 18 percent were obese.

The researchers found that 948 women were diagnosed with heart disease. Those active women with normal weight had the lowest risk but those with normal weight and not active at all had a slightly higher risk of developing heart disease. The risk rises for those active women who were either overweight or obese. People with the highest risk of getting heart disease are those who were overweight or obese and physically inactive.

In conclusion, the researchers stressed that it is important to counseling all women to participate in increasing amounts of regular physical activity and maintaining a healthy weight in order to lower the risk of coronary heart disease.

Is Silent Heart Attack Common?

The American Heart Association had declared heart disease as the number one killer in the United States. In general, people with high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, as well as those who are overweight or obese are at a high risk of getting heart disease.

According to a new study, the so-called silent heart attacks may be far more common than previously thought. Each year, there are nearly 200,000 Americans suffering such an attack without even realizing it.

In a paper published on April 20, 2009 in PLoS Medicine, a peer-reviewed publication of the Public Library of Science, the researchers from Duke University Medical Center reported that the unrecognized myocardial infarction (UMI) could be difficult to detect, if it occurred in the distant past, and it often goes unnoticed by the victim. It is, nevertheless, associated with a high risk of sudden death. They also pointed out that no one has yet fully understood how often these heart attacks occur and what they mean, in terms of prognosis.

The new study had led to the belief that the subset of heart attacks, known as non-Q-wave UMIs, is fairly common, at least among people with suspected coronary artery disease.

Doctors usually depend on specific alterations of an electrocardiogram (EKG) called a Q-wave that signals damage of heart tissue so that they could detect heart attacks, which happened in the distant past. However, many UMIs do not result in Q-waves on an EKG, leading to a previously unknown number of silent heart attacks.

In the study, the Duke researchers used a technique known as delayed enhancement cardiovascular magnetic resonance (DE-CMR) to examine 185 patients, who were suspected of having coronary artery disease but who had no record of any heart attacks.

These patients were studied for 2 years and it was found that 35 percent of them had evidence of a heart attack, and that non-Q-wave UMIs were 3 times more likely than Q-wave attacks. Furthermore, those who suffered non-Q-wave attacks had 17 times higher chance of dying of heart attacks than those with no heart damage.

The researchers also suggested that if patients with UMIs happen to be identified, they could have been treated in a similar manner as those patients who were known to have heart disease.

Overeating During Festive Season Could Be Bad For Health!

After a heavy Christmas dinner, it is not uncommon for one to take another slice of log cake or fruitcake and then followed by a can or two of soft drink. This is no big deal, right? After all, it is Christmas and people are supposed to eat, drink and be happy!

However, do you know that overindulging in food during festive season could be bad for our health? Why is that so?

Food and drink taken during festive season are usually high in fat, sugar and calories. People could have easily taken a significant amount of calories without even realizing it. This might cause a person to add about 2 kgs to 3 kgs of extra weight.

People will put on weight when the amount of calories consumed consistently exceeds the calories utilized. For example, when a person takes in an excess of 250 calories each day (this could easily found in 5 pieces of chocolate chip cookies or a slice of fruitcake) for 2 weeks, his or her weight might just be raised by half a kilogram.

The excess calories would not only make one’s waistline expanded but also cause problems like gastric discomfort or indigestion. More importantly, this could worsen chronic health conditions such as diabetes and high blood cholesterol.

People may argue that these chronic health problems would develop only after many years of being overweight or obese. Nevertheless, patients already diagnosed with diabetes, high blood cholesterol and high blood pressure often find their conditions worsen after a period of overeating. Bear in mind that these conditions could eventually lead to development of heart disease if they are not managed appropriately.

According to doctors, for people having pre-diabetes, which is a state when blood sugar is slightly elevated but not high enough to be classified as diabetes, a sudden weight gain and overindulgence in high calorie food would push them into full-blown diabetes.

How Does Fat Accumulation Link to Diabetes?

Being overweight or obese, one is at risk of developing diabetes. Like it or not, he or she will have a much higher chance of getting heart disease and other medical conditions.

A recent study by researchers from Erasmus Medical Centre-Sophia, Children's Hospital, Rotterdam, the Netherlands argued that the amount of fat accumulation of people have as they grow into adulthood would affect their risk of developing Type-2 diabetes.

They found that fat mass of a person in adulthood was the only factor significantly related to insulin sensitivity. It has been known that reduced insulin sensitivity is a precursor to diabetes. As such, parents should be aware of the risk of fat accumulation in their children, independent of birth size or growth childhood.

There was research suggesting that low birth weight was linked to increased risk of Type-2 diabetes. Yet there were others proposing that the acceleration in growth in people who were born small but attain normal adult size has harmful effects on metabolism. Nevertheless, it is still not clear if people who are born small and catch up in body size or those remain small throughout their lifetime are at greater risk of getting Type-2 diabetes.

Insulin sensitivity of 136 young men and women were examined in the study. The participants consists of 4 groups: some were born small for gestational age and remained short as adults; some were born small but reached normal height in adulthood; some were of normal size at birth but grew up to be short adults; and some were born at normal size and remained normal size as adults.

At the end of the study, researchers discovered that fat mass in adulthood was the only measurement that showed a significant link with the insulin sensitivity. The group of men and women, who were born small but caught up in body size as adults, had significantly lower insulin sensitivity than the control group.

A so-called ‘fat accumulation hypothesis’ was then proposed in March 2008 by the researchers stating that ‘an increased accumulation of fat during childhood, independent of birth size, will result in reduced insulin sensitivity.’ They also believed growth acceleration in height and weight as such is not a problem as long as a normal amount of fat is accumulated.

In conclusion, the researchers urge all individuals, regardless of their size at birth, should try to achieve or maintain a normal fat mass for their body size.

Will Weight Loss Drugs Benefit Obese Patients?

While some doctors do agree upon the difficulty to help overweight or obese patients lose weight successfully by taking weight loss drugs alone, others would think that the few kilos loss would make a significant difference for patients suffering from heart disease or diabetes problems. Nevertheless, those people who take the drugs for cosmetic reasons may not see much benefit.

A study carried out by researchers from the University of Alberta in Canada revealed that patients on weight loss drugs might lose little more than their money, and yet face many unpleasant side effects. The report, which was published in the “British Medical Journal” on November 16, 2007, indicated that close to 20,000 patients, weighing an average of 100 kilos lost less than 5 kilos because of these weight loss drugs. These patients had been on one of 3 weight loss drugs, Xenical, Reductil and Accomplia for one to 4 years.

The meta-analysis using data from 30 clinical trials found that up to 30 percent of the patients on Xenical had unpleasant digestive and intestinal side effects, such as incontinence. On average, they lost 3 kilos.

Patients who took Reductil lost 4 kilos and had improved cholesterol levels, but up to 20 percent of the patients suffered from high blood pressure, raised pulse rates, insomnia and nausea.

Accomplia was most effective as patients taking this drug lost the most weight, 5 kilos on average along with improved blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Nevertheless, the 6 percent of the patients had an increased risk of mood disorders.

In fact, another study reported also on November 16, 2007 in medical journal “The Lancet that patients who were prescribed Accomplia were very likely to suffer from depression, anxiety and even suicidal tendencies.

The worldwide annual sales of these 3 medicines is closed to US$1.2 billion. These drugs are meant for severely obese people, and many of them suffer from or are at higher risk of heart disease and diabetes.

Despite the side effects, which were explicitly listed by the drug manufacturers, many doctors do prescribed them to selected patients. According to their argument, fat people who lose 4 kilos could cut their risk of getting diabetes by 30 to 40 percent, and for those already suffer from diabetes, 4 kilos loss in weight would cut their blood sugar level and their risk of getting heart disease.

Beware of Heart Disease Even If You Have Normal BMI!

Body mass index (BMI) is the ratio of weight to height. The formula used to calculate BMI is:

BMI (kg/m2) = (weight in kg)/(height in meter x height in meter)

With the help of BMI, a person can be classified as underweight or overweight. Based on the guidelines provided by WHO (World Health Organization), people with BMI of 30 and above will be classified as obese, those with 25 to 29.9 as overweight, and those with less than 18.5 as underweight. A healthy person should have a BMI reading between 18.5 and 24.9.

An overweight or obese person tends to have a higher risk of getting heart disease. Therefore, if your BMI falls within the healthy range, you should be relieved. Unfortunately, this might not be true. Why?

During the American College of Cardiology's 57th Annual Scientific Session held in the month of April 2008, findings from Mayo Clinic revealed that patients with a normal BMI could still have a high body fat content that can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.

The researchers studied on so-called 'Normal Weight Obesity' of 2,127 subjects with a BMI in the normal range. Normal weight obesity was defined as a body fat content higher than 20 percent for men and 30 percent for women.

All the participants’ body composition was measured and a full assessment was made of body size variables and cardiovascular risk factors.

It was found that 1,321 participants had normal weight obesity, while the balance 806 had a normal body fat content. Meanwhile, the investigators also found that 13.6 percent of the normal weight obese individuals met the criteria for metabolic syndrome, comparing to 5.3 percent of those who had a normal weight without a high body fat content.

The metabolic syndrome refers to a cluster of risk factors for cardiovascular disease, including high blood sugar, high levels of the 'bad' cholesterol (LDL) and triglyceride levels, low levels of the 'good' cholesterol (HDL), high blood pressure and excess belly fat.

In the study, those participants found with normal weight obesity actually had a high waist circumference, high triglyceride levels, high fasting blood sugar levels or a diagnosis of diabetes, and other metabolic markers associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

The researchers suggested that public health measures to prevent heart disease should measure the belly or assess percentage of body fat instead of just tracking weight and BMI.

Exercise Can Help You Stay Healthy!

No matter how, you need to allocate certain amount of time to exercise! This is a piece of advice commonly recommended by or heard from doctors and health experts. However, how many of us will actually take such advice.

Ask yourself this question: when is your last exercise? Most of us will just quote excuses like ‘too busy’, ‘too tire’, and so on and so forth to skip exercise. We rather spend the spare time for watching television, playing computer games, or any other activities that require minimal or no physical movements at all.

A recent report published by the National Institute for Health and Medical Research (Inserm) on April 1, 2008 revealed that moderate, frequent exercise could reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer, respiratory disease and depression.

In the report, the French researchers set a benchmark for adults, at least 30 minutes of modest exercise, such as fast walking, at least 5 times a week; or 20 minutes of harder exercise, such as jogging, 3 times a week. Young people should do twice that of the adults.

Furthermore, Inserm also recommended 'muscular strengthening' at least twice a week, and advised the elderly to do stretching and balance exercises.

Daily activities such as climbing up stairs with shopping bags or cleaning a bathroom can also be included in the exercise tally. However, Inserm cautioned that what the amount of exercise recommended would have only a minor effect on people who are obese.

Chronic Diseases Diagnosed: US vs. Europe

When we talk about the social impact of ageing population, we simply cannot avoid the topic of chronic diseases as these two are closely related. Chronic diseases include cancer, diabetes, heart disease, etc. will cause the older population a great deal of their fortune just for the medical expenses.

A new study, conducted by researchers at Emory University Rollins School of Public Health and published online on October 1, 2007 by Health Affairs, revealed that Americans over the age of 50 are more likely to be diagnosed with chronic illnesses than their European counterparts.

The findings also indicated that patients in the United States are also more likely to get medical treatment for these costly diseases. This would make US health care 100 to 150 billion dollars (70 to 105 billion Euros) more expensive than in Europe annually.

According to the study, Americans are more susceptible to chronic diseases because of two reasons:

• Obese Americans are nearly two times more than obese Europeans.
• There are more current or former cigarette smokers in the US population than in Europe.

The researchers used the 2004 data on the prevalence and treatment of diseases among adults of age 50 and above and compared those in United States and those in the 10 European countries: Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

There are 33.1 percent of older Americans are obese, compared with 17.1 percent of Europeans. For smoking, there are 53 percent of Americans are former or current smokers, compared with 43 percent of Europeans.

In 2004, US healthcare spending for an individual averaged 6,120 dollars, which was about twice that in the Netherlands, Germany and France. If the US could bring its obesity rates in line with Europe's, it could simply save more than 100 billion dollars a year in health care costs.

However, the researchers were not clear about the reasons for the higher disease prevalence in US. It may be due to the fact that Americans are actually sicker than Europeans, or it is possible that more aggressive diagnosis and pre-treatment of chronic diseases in US raises disease prevalence rates.

On the other hand, the researchers believe that more intensive screening has made the rate of diagnosed cancer to be higher (more than double) in the US than that of Europe.