Does Body-Mass Index Really Predict Heart Risk?
THURSDAY, Aug. 17 (HealthDay News) — The widely used body-mass index (BMI) is not an accurate indicator of cardiovascular risk for people with heart disease because it does not distinguish between muscle and fat, a major review of the data contends. BMI is determined by dividing a person’s weight in kilograms by height in meters squared. A BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 is considered healthy, while over 25 is considered overweight and over 30 is considered obese. Doctors have typically gauged a person’s weight-linked risk for heart trouble by using their BMI. However, a new analysis of 40 studies involving over 250,000 patients showed that those with a BMI under 20 were at higher risk of death from cardiovascular disease than those with “obese” BMIs of 30 to 35. “An explanation for the lack of a positive association with BMI and mortality in older ages is that, in older persons, BMI is a poor measure of body fat,” concluded a team of researchers from the Mayo Clinic, who published their fi
