Obesity is one of the biggest health problems in the world. Obesity occurs when there is an excessive accumulation of fat in the body with a BMI that reaches 30 and above. If left untreated, obesity can affect the body severely. Besides having an impact on physical appearance, people with obesity are also at high risk of high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease.

Obesity has often been associated with a high risk of heart disease for quite a long time. There have been many studies that show that people with obesity with a BMI of 25-28.9 has more risk of coronary artery/heart disease. As for those with a BMI above 29, the risk has increased 4-fold. This affects both women or men.

It’s not only BMI that must be considered. According to the results of a recent study conducted byresearchers from several universities in Korea, it was found that accumulation of fat is a major factor that can help measure the risk of heart/coronary artery disease, especially in women. These results were obtained after analysing 659 Korean women aged 50 years and over who had complaints of chest pain and underwent coronary angiography.

In their study, the researchers found that women with excessive stomach fat had a higher risk of coronary artery/heart disease. While no significant differences were found in the risk of the disease when measured using BMI. Reporting from Science Daily, these results are relevant for post-menopausal women, because, in that phase, there is a change in the distribution of body fat, especially in the abdominal region. High waist size due to accumulation of fat in the abdomen can be more effective in predicting the risk of heart disease/coronary arteries than BMI.

Text by Anggie Triana
Stock photos from Pixabay

Source(s):

• Cho, J.H., Kim, H.L., Oh, S., et al (2019). Association between obesity type and obstructive coronary artery disease in stable symptomatic postmenopausal women: data from the KoReanwOmen 's chest pain rEgistry (KoROSE). Menopause, DOI: 10.1097 / GME. 0000000000001392.
• Science Daily - Waist size, not body mass index, may be more predictive of coronary artery disease (2019). https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190828140103.htm, 10 September 2019.