Cardiovascular Journal of Africa: Vol 26 No 1 (January/February 2015)

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CARDIOVASCULAR JOURNAL OF AFRICA • Volume 26, No 1, January/February 2015 20 AFRICA
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Losing weight at any age can improve cardiovascular health
Weight loss at any age in adulthood is worthwhile because it
could yield long-term heart and vascular benefits. The results
are from a study ongoing from 1946, examining the impact
of lifelong patterns of weight change on cardiovascular risk
factors in a group of British men and women followed since
birth.
They showed that the longer the exposure to excess body
fat (adiposity) in adulthood, the greater the cardiovascular-
related problems in later life, including increased thickness
of the carotid artery walls, raised systolic blood pressure, and
increased risk of diabetes. The findings were published online
on 21 May 2014 in the Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.
For the first time, the findings also indicate that adults
who drop a body mass index (BMI) category, from obese
to overweight, or from overweight to normal at any time
during adult life, even if they regain weight, can reduce these
cardiovascular manifestations.
The study used data from 1 273 men and women from the
UK Medical Research Council National Survey of Health
and Development (NSHD). Participants were classified as
normal weight, overweight or obese in childhood and at 36,
43, 53 and 60–64 years of age. Cardiovascular phenotyping
between the ages of 60 and 64 years with carotid intima–
media thickness (cIMT; a surrogate marker for cardiovascular
events) was used to assess the effect of lifetime exposure to
adiposity on cardiovascular risk factors.
Prof John Deanfield, lead author, from University College
London (UCL) said, ‘Our study is unique because it followed
individuals for such a long time, more than 60 years, and
allowed us to assess the effect of modest, real-life changes in
adiposity. Our findings suggest that losing weight at any age
can result in long-term cardiovascular health benefits, and
support public health strategies and lifestyle modifications
that help individuals who are overweight or obese to lose
weight at all ages.’
Elizabeth Cespedes and Frank Hu from the Harvard
School of Public Health, Boston, USA, commented on
the study. ‘Although it is encouraging that even transitory
weight loss during adulthood has cardiovascular benefits,
only 2% of participants in the present study had a sustained
reduction in BMI category in adulthood, underscoring
the importance of weight maintenance and prevention of
weight gain as priorities for public health programming
and policy. Improvements in diet and increases in physical
activity are crucial levers of long-term weight maintenance
and prevention of weight gain in middle-age and early
adulthood.
Overweight individuals might have even greater health
benefit from lifestyle changes such as increased physical
activity than do normal-weight individuals. The results of this
study affirm a continued emphasis on public health policies
that enable lifestyle changes to achieve and, especially, to
maintain a healthy BMI.’
They add, ‘Ideally, future research will address long-term
patterns of intentional versus unintentional weight loss, the
means to achieve weight loss and the weight loss maintenance
necessary to reduce cardiovascular endpoints.’
Source
any-age-can-improve-cardiovascular-health.