Dirty Martini
September 7th, 2004, 10:15 PM
Since this has been a hot topic lately, I thought I'd post this WSJ article (http://online.wsj.com/wsjgate?subURI=%2Farticle%2F0%2C%2CSB1094588492110 11477%2Demail%2C00%2Ehtml&nonsubURI=%2Farticle%5Femail%2F0%2C%2CSB1094588492 11011477%2DIZjgYNklaF3m5uma3qGaayCm5%2C00%2Ehtml):
Fit Women Face a Reduced Risk
Of Cardiovascular Ills, Study Says
By JENNIFER CORBETT DOOREN
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
September 8, 2004
Women who are physically fit have a lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease regardless of whether they are fat or thin, according to a study in today's Journal of the American Medical Association.
But a separate study, also appearing in JAMA, shows that overweight and obese women had a higher risk of developing diabetes than normal-weight women even if they were physically active. Both studies were primarily funded by the National Institutes of Health.
As a result, an accompanying editorial in JAMA suggested that medical professionals focus on getting the estimated 40 million to 50 million sedentary American adults, both male and female, to become physically active for at least 30 minutes, five days a week.
"In essence, physical activity is the common denominator for the treatment of low fitness and excess weight, making the fatness versus fitness debate largely academic," wrote Steven N. Blair and Tim S. Church of the Cooper Institute, a nonprofit medical research firm in Dallas. Mr. Blair and Dr. Church noted that everyday activities such as house cleaning and gardening count toward daily physical activity.
"In recent years, the 'fitness versus fatness' issue has led to controversy and heated debate," Mr. Blair and Dr. Church wrote. "Although the debate may never be fully resolved, the relative contribution of fitness and obesity to overall health and risk actually may be a trivial matter because a common treatment is already available for both low fitness and excess body weight." That common treatment, they said, is physical activity.
In the cardiovascular study, researchers looked at 906 women who were being evaluated for possible cardiovascular disease in 1996 to 2000. Of those women, 76% were overweight, 70% had low fitness levels and 39% had coronary heart disease. During followup, more than half of the 906 women had a heart attack, stroke or some other event such as an unstable heart beat and 68 died.
The study, led by Timothy R. Wessel of the University of Florida College of Medicine, found that women with low fitness levels were 46% more likely to have had an "adverse" coronary event than those with high fitness levels.
"These results suggest that fitness may be more important than overweight or obesity for [cardiovascular disease] risk in women," Dr. Wessel wrote.
Carl Pepine, the chief of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Florida and another one of the paper's authors, said that fit overweight women had better outcomes than unfit thin women. About two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese.
"We are just inundated with the importance of weight but we seem to have lost track of fitness," he said, adding that small increases in daily activity levels can lower risk for cardiovascular disease. He said walking up a flight or two of stairs and parking at the back of parking lots each day can quickly add up.
In the diabetes study, researchers looked at 37,878 women in a continuing NIH Women's Health Study, to determine the effects of body weight -- as measured by the body mass index, which uses height and weight to calculate body fat -- and physical fitness as it relates to the risk of developing diabetes.
Compared with normal weight women, or those with a BMI of 25 or less, overweight women had a risk for diabetes that was three times as great. For those who were obese, having a BMI of 30 or higher, the risk was more than nine times as great.
Researchers, led by Amy Weinstein, formerly of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, did find that there was a modest reduction in diabetes risk with increased physical activity but that gains in BMI were a bigger risk factor.
Dr. Weinstein also suggested that people increase their physical activity because it often leads to weight loss.
"It remains an important intervention in diabetes prevention," she wrote.
Write to Jennifer Corbett Dooren at jennifer.corbett-dooren@dowjones.com
(text in italics is my emphasis)
Fit Women Face a Reduced Risk
Of Cardiovascular Ills, Study Says
By JENNIFER CORBETT DOOREN
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
September 8, 2004
Women who are physically fit have a lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease regardless of whether they are fat or thin, according to a study in today's Journal of the American Medical Association.
But a separate study, also appearing in JAMA, shows that overweight and obese women had a higher risk of developing diabetes than normal-weight women even if they were physically active. Both studies were primarily funded by the National Institutes of Health.
As a result, an accompanying editorial in JAMA suggested that medical professionals focus on getting the estimated 40 million to 50 million sedentary American adults, both male and female, to become physically active for at least 30 minutes, five days a week.
"In essence, physical activity is the common denominator for the treatment of low fitness and excess weight, making the fatness versus fitness debate largely academic," wrote Steven N. Blair and Tim S. Church of the Cooper Institute, a nonprofit medical research firm in Dallas. Mr. Blair and Dr. Church noted that everyday activities such as house cleaning and gardening count toward daily physical activity.
"In recent years, the 'fitness versus fatness' issue has led to controversy and heated debate," Mr. Blair and Dr. Church wrote. "Although the debate may never be fully resolved, the relative contribution of fitness and obesity to overall health and risk actually may be a trivial matter because a common treatment is already available for both low fitness and excess body weight." That common treatment, they said, is physical activity.
In the cardiovascular study, researchers looked at 906 women who were being evaluated for possible cardiovascular disease in 1996 to 2000. Of those women, 76% were overweight, 70% had low fitness levels and 39% had coronary heart disease. During followup, more than half of the 906 women had a heart attack, stroke or some other event such as an unstable heart beat and 68 died.
The study, led by Timothy R. Wessel of the University of Florida College of Medicine, found that women with low fitness levels were 46% more likely to have had an "adverse" coronary event than those with high fitness levels.
"These results suggest that fitness may be more important than overweight or obesity for [cardiovascular disease] risk in women," Dr. Wessel wrote.
Carl Pepine, the chief of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Florida and another one of the paper's authors, said that fit overweight women had better outcomes than unfit thin women. About two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese.
"We are just inundated with the importance of weight but we seem to have lost track of fitness," he said, adding that small increases in daily activity levels can lower risk for cardiovascular disease. He said walking up a flight or two of stairs and parking at the back of parking lots each day can quickly add up.
In the diabetes study, researchers looked at 37,878 women in a continuing NIH Women's Health Study, to determine the effects of body weight -- as measured by the body mass index, which uses height and weight to calculate body fat -- and physical fitness as it relates to the risk of developing diabetes.
Compared with normal weight women, or those with a BMI of 25 or less, overweight women had a risk for diabetes that was three times as great. For those who were obese, having a BMI of 30 or higher, the risk was more than nine times as great.
Researchers, led by Amy Weinstein, formerly of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, did find that there was a modest reduction in diabetes risk with increased physical activity but that gains in BMI were a bigger risk factor.
Dr. Weinstein also suggested that people increase their physical activity because it often leads to weight loss.
"It remains an important intervention in diabetes prevention," she wrote.
Write to Jennifer Corbett Dooren at jennifer.corbett-dooren@dowjones.com
(text in italics is my emphasis)