Healthcare staffing employees may have heard about the “fit and fat” rule. Until a few years ago, this rule meant that people could be severely overweight yet still be within the healthy range, as long as they didn’t have diabetes or hypertension. While there were a small number of trials that suggested that some overweight individuals may be as healthy as their normal weight counterparts, new research contradicts the idea and raises awareness on the imminent health complications of obesity.
Travel nursing professionals, the bottom line is this: It’s not possible to be both overweight and healthy. Even though an obese individual may temporarily have normal blood pressure, blood sugar levels and cholesterol, he or she is still at much greater risk for heart disease, according to a research report published the Journal of the American College of Cardiology in April 2014.
“Obese individuals who are considered ‘healthy’ because they don’t currently have heart disease risk factors should not be assumed healthy by their doctors,” Dr. Yoosoo Chang, a professor at Kangbuk Samsung Hospital Total Health Care Center, told HealthDay.
For the study, approximately 14,000 participants aged 30 to 59 were recruited to undergo clinical assessment. Chang and his colleagues scanned the hearts of every participant who had no apparent risk factors for heart disease. They found those who were obese had more plaque buildup in their arteries – an early sign of heart disease and stroke – than people of normal weight.
This accumulation of plaque is linked to atherosclerosis, which doctors call the stiffening of arteries. Overall, obese people have a higher chance of hardening heart arteries that leads to heart attacks.
But being obese doesn’t just affect the heart. It makes individuals more likely to suffer joint disease, psychiatric disorders and cancers, according to Dr. Rishi Puri. As medical staffing individuals know, an obese person has a greater risk for high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes. Adults who have a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher are considered obese.
“Our research shows that the presence of obesity is enough to increase a person’s risk of future heart disease and that the disease may already be starting to form in their body,” Chang told HealthDay. “It’s important that these people learn this while they still have time to change their diet and exercise habits to prevent a future cardiovascular event.”
Tipping point
This research corroborates a recent comprehensive review of studies dating back to the 1950s, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine and expanded by TIME. The investigators, from Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Canada, found that the those who tipped the scales at above their recommended BMI, still had a higher risk of dying from heart disease.
Dr. Caroline Kramer, the study’s lead author, believes that the error in previous studies that said fit and fat could coexist likely traced back to how these studies were set up. For example, some trials only compared weight and the risk of adverse events rather than looking closely at people’s metabolic health. Other studies compared healthy obese people to unhealthy obese people, instead of contrasting them to people of normal, healthy weights.
The two biggest factors that lead to obesity – diet and exercise – dictate one’s energy balance, which means that energy from food and drinks should equal energy out, or the amount of calories the body uses for things like breathing, digesting and being physically active. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute recommends that to maintain a healthy weight, your energy in and out must come out even on a monthly basis.