Obesity is not necessarily a predictor of heart disease, a study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism on March 22 said. In fact, obese people with good metabolic health are not at a greater risk of heart disease.
The findings are based on more than 22,000 middle-aged participants in national health studies conducted in England and Scotland.
"Compared with the metabolically healthy non-obese participants, their obese counterparts were not at elevated risk of CVD [cardiovascular disease], although both non-obese participants with two or more metabolic abnormalities were at elevated risk," the study argued.
Metabolic health means having normal blood pressure, blood sugar, HDL, good cholesterol and C-reactive protein. These factors, the researchers suggested, are more important to preventing future cardiovascular problems.
"Metabolically unhealthy obese participants were at elevated risk of all-cause mortality compared with their metabolically healthy obese," concluded the study.
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