‘Middle-aged spread’ ups the risk of heart attack – even with a healthy BMI

GETTING a middle-aged spread of less than a stone increases the risk of heart attack or stroke by one-quarter, a new study shows.

A study of people in their 40s and 50s found those who began carrying a bit extra were more prone to killer illnesses – even if they were a healthy weight.

Mortality rates from cardiovascular disease soared by 26 and 23 per cent for men and women, respectively – for every 11lb they put on.

And the risk of dying from any cause increased by 10 and 15% for men and women, respectively, for the relatively modest extra fat.

This applied to those with a BMI as low as 23 – which is considered normal, reports JAMA Network Open.

Piling on three stone increased the risk of obesity related cancers by onethird for men (34%) and almost half for women (45%).

In post-menopausal women, it specifically increased the risk of breast and womb cancer more than twofold.

Corresponding author Dr Wei Zheng said: “This study found weight gain from early to middle adulthood was associated with disease incidence and mortality in later life.”

The findings are based on 35,989 men and 48,377 women in China aged 40 to 59 who had been slim in early adulthood.

Obesity, a condition related to excess adiposity, has been associated with increased risk of multiple chronic diseases.

The epidemic of obesity has been a serious health concern in the United States and multiple high-income countries during the past two decades, said Dr Zheng.

He said: “Adverse effects of excess adiposity include overproduction of hormones, chronic inflammation, and insulin resistance.”

In the UK about two in three adults are overweight.

In the past, most Asian individuals have had a low body weight.

But with rapid economic development and adoption of sedentary lifestyles during the past few decades, there has been a marked increase in obesity and obesityrelated diseases in many Asian countries, such as China, the most populated country in the world.

Dr Zheng said: “The number of obese adults in China has already surpassed that in the United States.”

An expanding waistline is common in midlife. Metabolism slows as you get older, causing a natural shift in body composition, dubbed “middleaged spread”. It is known that turning a blind eye to the increasing inches can cause future health problems.

But Dr Zheng, an epidemiologist at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, said the link to disease risk has not been adequately studied.

In the most comprehensive analysis of its kind, his team found putting on weight in middle age was associated with an increased risk of death from a host of diseases.

Dr Zhenh said: “Weight gain from early to middle adulthood was associated with elevated mortality as well as incidence of multiple obesityrelated cancers in later life only among those who reached a body mass index of 23 or higher.”