Obesity and cardiovascular disease

The prevalence of obesity has reached epidemic proportions, and in terms of the extent of its negative impact on the health has been compared to those of tobacco and alcohol. One of the first medical consequences of obesity to be recognised was cardiovascular disease (CVD). Obesity, particularly abdominal obesity, predisposes a person to a number of other cardiovascular risk factors, and is an independent predictor of clinical CVD including coronary death, coronary heart disease, heart failure and stroke.

A Medline search using the following keywords (obesity, cardiovascular disease, body mass index, cardiovascular risk factors, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome) was performed looking for high impact factor English-written references.

Ninety-nine (N=99) relevant articles published in the last 15 years were selected and commented. As detailed throughout the text, current therapies available for weight management can improve or prevent many of these obesity-related risk factors for CVD. However, there is some controversy as to whether weight loss is beneficial for health, and large clinical outcome trials such as the Look-AHEAD (Action for Health in Diabetes) trial or the SCOUT (Sibutramine Cardiovascular Outcomes Trial) study are currently ongoing.

In the present review, we summarise the effects of obesity as well as the efficacy of weight-loss interventions on cardiovascular risk factors and CVD.