Weight fluctuations, blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar can significantly increase the risk of myocardial infarction, stroke, and premature death from any cause, say researchers from South Korea.
The study, published in Circulation, the first, where it is suggested that abrupt changes of these metabolic risk factors has a negative impact on relatively healthy people.
As you know, obesity and constantly elevated blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar significantly increase the risk of myocardial infarction and stroke, and dying from them. However, much less information about what happens when the oscillations of these metabolic risk factors over time, especially if not previously diagnosed with diabetes or high blood pressure.
Using a variety of strict diets, people can drop a lot of pounds. However, the risk of rapid set the excess weight again is very high. This phenomenon is called the phenomenon of yo-yo or cyclical weight loss. In Western countries it is estimated that such cycles are typical for 10-40% of the population.
Attempt to stabilize these parameters could be an important step in helping to improve the health, said the study’s lead author, Dr. sing-hwan Lee (Seung Hwan Lee) from the Catholic University of Korea (Catholic University of Korea), Seoul.
The researchers studied data from more than 6.7 million people without myocardial infarction, diabetes, high blood pressure or high cholesterol history, collected in the framework of Korean National health insurance from 2005 to 2012. These people were examined at least three times. They weighed, measured the level of fasting blood sugar, systolic (upper) blood pressure and total cholesterol.
During the observation there were almost 55,000 deaths, more than 22,000 strokes and more than 21,000 heart attacks.
The researchers came to the conclusion that the strong fluctuations of metabolic risk factors in one direction or another increases the risk of premature death. Compared with those who had minor weight change, blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels, with most of the races, the probability of premature death increased by 127%, and of myocardial infarction or stroke by 40%.
For patients it would be prudent to avoid repeated weight loss and regaining weight for optimal cardiovascular health, said Marie-Pierre St-Ong (Marie-Pierre St-Onge) from Medical center of Irving Columbia University (Columbia University Medical Center Irving), new York, who was not involved in the study.
And yet people who are overweight or obese do not leave attempts to lose weight, fear of harm to health due to fluctuations in weight. They need to set ourselves achievable goals that will support the weight over time, avoiding yo-yo dieting.
Weight gain creates stress on the body, which can increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes. The ultimate goal is not the maintenance of overweight or obesity, but rather maintaining a healthy weight throughout life, added St Ong.
The study was observational, so there is no evidence of a causal relationship between the instability of metabolic risk factors and myocardial infarction, stroke, or death from any cause.
Another limitation is the possibility that results may differ in other racial or ethnic groups. However, the singlet-hwan Lee says: a Few previous studies on the instability were conducted in other populations, which indicates probably a similar phenomenon.
Valeria SEMA