Losing Weight by Midlife Reduces CVD Risk

From Heartwire Harvard alumni study of early and midlife coronary disease risk Reed Miller October 26, 2011 (Cambridge, Massachusetts) — A study of Harvard alumni shows that obesity early in life does not portend a coronary disease death in people who reach a healthier weight by their mid-40s. The National Institutes of Health–sponsored Harvard Alumni Health Study has followed nearly 19 000 men who began regular medical examinations during their undergraduate years at Harvard University between 1916 and 1950. The median follow-up period was 56.4 years and the maximum was 82.5 years. The authors report their findings in the October 24, 2011 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. Investigators Dr Linsay Gray (Medical Research Council, Glasgow, Scotland) and colleagues found that Harvard men who were obese in early adulthood had twice the risk of dying from coronary disease as men with a normal body-mass index as young men (18.5 to 28 years). The association between obesity as young men and cardiovascular mortality later on held even after adjustment for confounding variables in early adulthood such as smoking and physical activity and after adjustment for midlife risk factors including type 2 diabetes and hypertension. However, the link seen between early obesity (18.4 years) and later coronary disease death disappeared after taking into account midlife body-mass index (46.1 years), suggesting that men who were obese when they were young can reduce their risk by reaching a normal weight by middle age. The authors caution that their results should be replicated in more studies with a broader population. Commenting on the study, Archives editor Dr Rita Redberg (University of California, San Francisco) writes that this study "brings us some reason for hope that efforts to address childhood obesity are well worth it, [and] it is never too late to adopt healthy lifestyle changes."