According to a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine, twin siblings with a higher BMI do not have an increased risk of heart attack or mortality. However, a higher BMI is associated with an increase in risk of type 2 diabetes.
Peter Nordström, researcher at the Department of Community Medicine and Rehabilitation at Umeå University explains that lifesytyle changes to reduce obesity were not found to have an effect on the risk of death and health attack. These findings thus contradict conventional understandings of obesity-related health risks.
The study does show that there is a strong association between obesity and diabetes thus proving that weight reduction interventions can be more effective against diabetes as compared to reducing the risk of heart attack.
During the study, the researchers compared health data from 4,046 monozygotic twin pairs. Study participants had different leaves of body fat thus providing the researchers to evaulate obesity-related health risks independent of genetic factors.
Differences between the twins were compared on measures of mortality, heart attack and type 2 diabetes. Findings showed that twin siblings with a higher BMI did not have an increased risk of mortality or heart attack as compared to the thinner participants. However, tohse with a higher BMI had a greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Results:
- 203 heart attacks and 550 deaths among those with a higher BMI.
- 209 heart attacks and 633 deaths among those with a lower BMI.
- No noticeable increased risk of mortality or heart attack among those with a BMI of 30 or higher.
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
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BMI, Heart Attack, mortality, diabetes
According to a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine, twin siblings with a higher BMI do not have an increased risk of heart attack or mortality. However, a higher BMI is associated with an increase in risk of type 2 diabetes.
