MedicalNewsToday.com reports on research, published in the European Journal of Preventative Cardiology. The study involved 22,000 people aged between 35-77 who were enlisted from the Swedeheart cardiac arrest registry. 17000 of these were male.
Each person was followed for 4 years and the team concluded that stomach fat was a more vital indicator of recurrent heart attacks than general obesity , defined as a waist circumference of more than 94 cm (37 inches) in men and 80cm (31.5 inches ) for women.
The conclusion they reached was that:
"Patients with increasing levels pf abdominal obesity still had a raised risk of recurrent events despite being on therapies that lower traditional risk factors such as anti-hypertensives, diabetes medication and lipid lowering drugs".
"Maintaining a healthy waist circumference is important for preventing future heart attacks and strokes regardless of how many drugs you may be taking or how healthy your blood tests are".
Dr Hanieh Mohammadi, The Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.
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Thanks for the link to the original survey. I have had a look and a few sentences stood out
There is an elevated risk at 37" for men 31.5" for women and a much higher risk at 40" for men and 34.5" for women,
For men who have had a heart attack(MI), there is a greater risk for those who are inside their BMI but have a waist size of 37" or greater.
It appears that to be inside your BMI and waist half your height is the way to go. No magic pills. Just management of eating and exercise as well as your pills Easy to say.
I aim for half height as I cannot believe one size firs all. People are three dimensional and one figure cannot be right for an approximate spread of heights of 18" (46cm).
Yes. I have my valves done and an Ablation. I currently have a recorder inside my chest wall to track my heart rate as my cardiologist thinks I may need a pacemaker. As long as I keep exercising. Avoid alcohol and watch my weight my afib seems to ease off.. no rest for the wicked
I stupidly fooled myself over many years that my weight increased with age and that is to be expected. Often a nurse taking my blood pressure was overweight, considerably so in a few cases. They considered a blood pressure figure of 140/85 as OK - probably there's was worse.
So it was obvious as a male of medium build and 5' - 8", aged 77, should really be about 10 stone - 140lbs. Previously I was 11 stone 6lbs - 160lbs and I was told my weight was OK - they were wrong or just basically lied.
Some annoying websites give my BMI as normal whether 130lbs, 140lbs, 150lbs or 160lbs. Now my weight is 138lbs to 142lbs. The big test is if I can fit into a size 32" pair of trousers yet. The answer is no, except for one pair with elasticated sides. So more of the correct exercises needed.
Doctors and nurses do not want to get into arguments with patients and want generally quiet lives and enjoy their careers. One nurse did say my weight was OK - with a slight errr. Then I said, I might try to lose some weight. She said, "that's a good idea".
The answer is that at 11stone 6lbs my heart was doing more than it needed to. My old car is going along fine, with some paving slabs on board and 3 passengers it definitely struggled and hesitated a few times. Maybe our hearts do the same when having to do too much.
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