Obesity Paradox" – another look at the problem of cardiovascular disease

Abstract

Major epidemiologic studies over the last century demonstrated that obesity leads to several severe diseases such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, coronary heart disease, chronic heart failure, cerebrovascular accidents. In developed countries cardiovascular diseases became the main cause of death. In the last 5–6 years some studies showed that people with overweight and obesity of the first degree have a higher life expectancy than people with normal weight. In 2009, the published data showed that the presence of obesity in patients with chronic heart failure does not impair cardiovascular prognosis. Overweight correlates with a decrease in overall mortality by 25%. And in a first degree of obesity the risk of death is reduced by 12%. This phenomenon is called "obesity paradox" and the causes of which are discussed in this review.