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Body Fatness and Heart Disease
Body fatness was associated with more heart disease risk factors even among healthy, aerobically fit men, according to a report in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. (4/19/05).
A study of 135 healthy men who varied widely in body fatness and aerobic fitness found that fatness was consistently associated with heart disease risk factors, while fitness was associated with only selective risk factors.
Findings provide justification for risk-factor management strategies that emphasize prevention of weight gain in normal weight men and long-term weight reduction in overweight and obese men.
They studies 135 volunteers, ages 20-79, all of whom had passes a rigorous health screening that excluded men with such problems as high blood pressure, overt coronary heart disease, irregular heartbeats and men who smokes or were taking medications.
Men who are overweight or obese should be encouraged to reduce body fatness regardless of their aerobic fitness. Weight management and prevention of excess adiposity should be a health goal for men. Men who are sedentary should be encouraged to increase their physical activity and improve aerobic fitness, regardless of their body fatness. Physical activity and aerobic fitness should be viewed as an effective partner to weight maintenance in the primary prevention of heart disease.
The National Institutes of Health funded the study.
Source: http://www.americanheart.org/
