QUICKLINKS AND VIEW OPITONS
Obesity doubles the risk of stroke
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Thursday, March 04, 2004 3:04 pm Email this article
Obesity doubles the risk of stroke according to a recent study. The risk of stroke increases 6 percent for every one unit increase in BMI.
This was true for both ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes.
Subjects who were obese ? defined as having a BMI of 30 or more ? were 2.0 as likely to suffer any kind of stroke, 2.0 times as likely to suffer an ischemic stroke, and 2.3 times as likely to suffer a hemorrhagic stroke, compared to subjects who were lean with a BMI of less than 23.
Adjusting for hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and diabetes mellitus slightly reduced the risk for total stroke and for ischemic stroke—from a 6 percent to a 4 percent increase in risk for every one unit increase in BMI—but did not reduce the risk for hemorrhagic stroke.
This indicates that the increased risk is more than just a matter of blood pressure, blood sugar, or insulin.
The study analyzed 12.5 years of follow-up data from 21,414 US male physicians participating in the Physicians’ Health Study.
During that time there were a total of 747 strokes total, 631 ischemic strokes, 104 hemorrhagic strokes, and 12 strokes that were undefined.
REFERENCE
Kurth T, Gaziano J, Berger K, Kase C, Rexrode K, Cook N, Buring J, Manson J. Body mass index and the risk of stroke in men. Arch Intern Med. 2002 Dec 9-23, 162(22):2557-62.
Articles on the same subject can be found here:
COMMENTS
Please feel free to share your comments about this article.
© Copyright 2003-2012 - Larry Hobbs - All Rights Reserved.