Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/783222
RESEARCH FINDS THAT YOUNG MEN IN THE MIDDLEŸ TO HIGHŸNORMAL RANGE OF BMI HAVE ELEVATED RISK FOR HEART FAILURE WHEN THEY REACH MIDDLE AGE ¦ EARLIER THAN HEART FAILURE TYPICALLY DEVELOPS. APPROXIMATELY 5.7 MILLION Americans are living with heart failure, according to the CDC. The typical profi le of a heart failure patient is a man age 65 or older, according to the National Institutes of Health, and patients usually have comor- bidities, such as coronary artery disease, hy per t en sion a nd d iabet es. R ecent resea rch from Sweden indicates the prevalence of obesity in the young, how- ever, could lead to more diagnoses of heart failure in midlife in the future. THE OBESITY EFFECT A nni ka Roseng ren, MD, Ph D, FESC, Professor of Medicine at Sa hlg renska Un iversit y Hospit a l i n G ot henbu rg , Sweden; Ma ria Åberg, MD, A ssista nt Professor in the Depa r tment of Public Hea lt h a nd Com munit y Medicine at the University of Gothenburg 's Institute of Medicine; a nd collea g ues followed m or e t h a n 1 . 6 m i l l i on m e n i n t h e Swedish Conscript reg istr y who were d ra f ted at a ge 18 bet ween 1968 a nd 2 0 05 . T hey t r a cked t he men for a n avera ge of 23 yea rs. Approx i mat ely 5,500 were admit ted to a hospita l for he a r t f a i lu r e du r i n g t he fol low-up per iod at a n avera ge a ge of about 47. Nea rly 80 percent of t he men i n t he study had had a norma l BMI when they entered milita r y ser vice. However, the resea rchers found that t he men's hea r t fa i lure risk bega n to rise even while they were well within the norma l ra nge of 18.5 to 25. Hea r t BY THOMAS CROCKER among Late Teens May Presage Heart Failure Crisis, Study Suggests OBESITY E P I D E M I C OBESITY SPECIAL CLINICAL SECTION: CARDIOLOGY 2 0