A Waist is a Terrible Thing to Mind

When I was growing up (not that I don't need to still mature), I used to watch a commercial on TV with the tagline "A mind is a terrible thing to waste".  Well, it turns out health-wise that a waist is a terrible thing to mind.  Just ask the two-thirds of Americans who are overweight & obese.  Weight loss is a multi-billion dollar industry and what appears to be a never-ending saga of woe.  But why bother?

It turns out that your weight is related to your risk of heart disease.  More specifically, your overweight or obesity is related to heart disease.  In a very elegant (and convoluted) study involving genetics (again), the authors followed 75,627 Danes avg 55+yrs for anywhere from 20-30yrs and concluded that 4kg/m2 increase in body mass index (BMI) was associated with a 26% increase risk of heart disease using observational data only.  The authors concluded that the same 4kg/m2 increase in BMI now lead to a 52% increase risk of heart disease when genetic data was added to help prove causality.  Their paper was published earlier this week in the Public Library of Science: Medicine.

So what does this study add to our previous fount of knowledge?  Well, it's observational conclusion is in sync (think trend, right?) w/what we've known for quite some time: heart disease occurs more frequently in those who are overweight or obese.  But this is just an association.  We've never been able to isolate weight from its comorbidities, eg diabetes, dyslipidemia, hypertension, etc.  Which is why it was important to toss genetics into the fray in an attempt to demonstrate causality.  Regardless, the message is still the same.  Eat less, exercise more.  Lower your risk of heart disease by getting rid of excess body fat.

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