Overweight and inactivity increases risk of heart failure: study

23 December 2008

A little extra weight and physical inactivity can almost triple a man's risk of heart failure and one of the best ways to avoid it is to exercise, stay lean, and get fit, a study has found.

Satish Kenchaiah, MD and researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital, who did a  study tracking 21,000 middle-aged and senior doctors for two decades, found out that obese and inactive men faced a 300 per cent risk of heart failure compared to lean and active men.

Heart failure can lead to coronary artery disease and high blood pressure which makes the heart incapable or too weak to pump blood efficiently from the heart to other parts of the body and the most common cause of heart failure is a previous heart attack, but having high blood pressure can also lead to heart failure for which there is no known cure.

Researchers tracking 21,094 colleague's weight for two decades found that even those who were only slightly overweight faced the risk of suffering a heart failure with the risk increasing with more overweight persons.

The study found that those men who were 5ft 10in tall, for every seven pounds of excess weight gain, risk of heart failure increased by 11 per cent.

When the research started two decades back, the average age of the doctors who took part was 53 and by the time the research concluded, more than 1,000 of them had developed heart failure throughout the period of research.