Fat Mouse Skinny Mouse - Source: gov

(Best Syndication) Although obesity is a leading cause of heart disease, paradoxically obese patients with cardiovascular disease are more likely to survive a major event. This obesity paradox has been studied since Kamyar Kalantar-Zadeh published his findings in the journal Kidney International in 2003, but now researchers in Louisiana say that in obese patients, losing weight is optimum.

The new research conducted at the Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans by cardiologist Carl J. Lavie, MD corroborates Zadeh’s. The paradox is real. Obese heart patients respond better to strokes and heart attacks compared to normal or underweight patients.

It is important to remember that obesity is the leading cause of heart death, and overweight and obese patients have a much higher incidence of heart attacks and strokes.

Losing weight is best, according to Lavie. “Overweight heart patients do better than thin patients, but overweight patients who lose weight do best of all," he explains. The prognosis can be improved with regular exercise.

The term “reverse epidemiology” refers to the medical hypothesis which says obesity and even high cholesterol may have protective benefits and be associated with a greater survivability in certain groups of people such s the very elderly and those with certain chronic diseases.

Back in February similar research with mice showed that fat may provide a purpose. "Fat is a very complex and active tissue—it has important functions beyond providing energy and insulating us from the cold,” according to professor Gregoary Freund of the University of Illinois (U of I) College of Medicine. “When we exposed mice to hypoxia (simulating an event, such as a heart attack, in which a part of the body is deprived of oxygen), leptin triggered the immune system to increase production of an anti-inflammatory molecule, interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1RA)."

For this reason, obese mice recovered five times faster than mice fed a low fat diet. After the non-obese mice were given injections of leptin, they recovered three times faster than their non-obese mice counterparts without the injections. Leptin is a hormone secreted by fat tissue.

It appears that because of IL-IRA obese patients have a better prognosis than normal weight patients with congestive heart failure, rheumatoid arthritis and other diseases that involve the utilization of oxygen. “There is a legitimate discussion among physicians about how such patients should deal with their excess weight," said Freund.

By Dan Wilson