Yo-yoing weight linked to higher cardiovascular risk
Recent research cautions that fluctuating weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events and death.
Scientists at the Catholic University of Korea in Seoul, South Korea — with other institutions — have now assessed the associations between fluctuations in some certain types of health measurement and cardiovascular health outcomes.
The health measurements include body weight, systolic blood pressure (blood pressure during heartbeats), cholesterol, and blood sugar.
Essentially, the investigators wanted to see whether or not high variability of these health measurements would be good predictors of heart problems and negative cardiovascular events, such as stroke.
Their findings now appear in the journal Circulation.
Increased risk of early death
In the recent study, the investigators analyzed health data collected from 6,748,773 people with no history of diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or heart attacks at the beginning of the study. This information was provided by the Korean National Health Insurance system.
All those involved with this study underwent at least three different health checkups in 2005–2012. Some of the information recorded during these examinations included body weight, systolic blood pressure, cholesterol, and fasting blood sugar.
For the first time, the authors concluded that high fluctuations in the measurements of these factors was associated with a negative impact on cardiovascular health.
Also, they go on, if a person has high variability of more than one of these, their cardiovascular risk may be further heightened.
Compared with people with stable measurements across an average period of 5.5 years, those who scored the highest variability on all risk factors had a 127 percent higher risk of all-cause death, were 43 percent more likely to experience a heart attack, and had a 41 percent higher risk of stroke.
Such fluctuations in the measurements under analysis can be the result of either negative changes or positive changes, the researchers note.
