14 DAY TRIAL // It is a widely known fact that obesity increases people's risk of developing a myriad of medical conditions, including type II diabetes, and heart conditions. But, according to a new scientific study, it would appear that obesity essentially protects against future heart problems, if a patient, for example, already had a heart attack. This is very odd, researchers say, and the investigation underlines one of the rare instances in which being overweight and having extra pounds is actually beneficial.
The weird correlation even received a name, the “obesity paradox.” Oddly enough, several research groups have arrived at the same conclusion, that skinnier patients tend to fare worst than their larger peers after experiencing a heart attack. The new investigation was conducted on no less than 1,231 heart failure patients, which were classified as either obese, overweight and of normal weight. Other than the obese category, the other two had a 76 percent higher chance of sudden cardiac death later on in life. This would seem to indicate that something about obesity is highly-protective of the heart, LiveScience reports.
Sudden cardiac death is not by far a rare occurrence. Official statistics indicate that no less than 330,000 Americans lose their lives to it every year. Therefore, finding new methods of reducing the risk of that happening is very important, and many research groups have over the years done their best to design new therapies. Investigators highlight that SCD is very different from heart attack. While in the former the heart simply stops beating, in the latter the blood flow is severely restricted.
“When we started this study we were hoping the data would disprove the obesity paradox,” explains University of Rochester's School of Medicine and Dentistry second-year medical student Bonnie Choy, also the author of a new study detailing the findings. Details of the investigation were presented a few days ago on March 16 at the annual scientific session of the American College of Cardiology “Obese patients are hard on their bodies; many don't eat right, don't exercise, and many smoke. If their bodies are surviving this bad treatment then perhaps they are better equipped, from a genetic standpoint, to live with heart failure,” says researcer Eric Hansen, also a student at the university.