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Item
#3
Greater
Stroke Risk in Men With Body Mass Index of 30 or Greater
Risk
of stroke increases significantly as body mass index (BMI)
increases.
That,
according to a report in the December 9th and 23rd issue of the
Archives of Internal Medicine, from new data from the US
Physicians' Health Study.
Dr.
Tobias Kurth said
that, "There is a clear linear association between BMI and
stroke, which holds
true for total, ischemic, and hemorrhagic stroke, and is
independent of possible biological mediators such as hypertension,
diabetes, and high cholesterol."
Dr.
Kurth, from Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, and colleagues
collected data on 21,414 men who participated in the Physicians'
Health Study. The researchers looked for incidence of stroke and
compared these with BMI.
There
were 747 stroke during 12.5 years of follow-up, the researchers
found. Of these 631 were ischemic and 104 were hemorrhagic with 12
undefined.
Men
with a BMI of 30 or greater were at a significantly greater risk
for stroke compared with men whose BMI was less than 25 (relative
risk 1.91 for total stroke, 1.87 for ischemic stroke and 1.92 for
hemorrhagic stroke), Dr. Kurth's team reports.
As
a continuous variable, each 1-unit increase in BMI was associated
with a 6% increase in relative risk for all stroke, they add. The
risk for ischemic stroke was slightly attenuated by adjusting for
hypertension, diabetes and hypercholesterolemia. However, these
adjustments did not alter the risk for hemorrhagic stroke, they
note.
"Since
the numbers of adults, in particular young adults who are
overweight and obese is rising in the US and industrial countries
and stroke is the main cause of disability and third leading cause
of death, the study results are even more important," Dr.
Kurth said.
"This
study provide evidence that staying lean modifies your risk of
stroke and physicians should consider increased risk of stroke
another hazard of obesity. We hope that physicians will focus more
on obesity as target for stroke prevention," he stressed. Arch
Intern Med 2002;162:2557-2562.
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