all Physicians' Health Study stories

Eating whole-grain cereals may help men lower heart failure risk

404132862 — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 15:14:44 -0400

Men who consume a higher amount of whole grain breakfast cereals may have a reduced risk of heart failure, according to a report by Harvard researchers published in the October 22 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

"The lifetime risk of heart failure is estimated at 20 percent (one in five) for both men and women aged 40 years," according to background information in the article. Studies have suggested that the risk of hypertension, coronary heart disease, hypercholesterolemia (high blood cholesterol) and mortality can be reduced with a diet rich in grain products.

Elevated BMI may not increase risk of death among men with heart attack or stroke

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:38:55 -0400

"This study does not eliminate a small amount of risk for being overweight or obese," said author Howard D. Sesso, Sc.D., M.P.H., of BWH. "However, it does tell physicians that BMI may not have a prominent role in predicting the future risk of death among men who may have already experienced the cardiovascular complications of obesity by having a heart attack or stroke."

In this study, researchers examined 5,010 middle-aged and older men from the Physicians' Health Study with approximately five years of follow-up data. Those analyzed included men who had a self-reported history of heart attack or stroke. Four BMI categories were used that ranged from less than 22.0 kg/m 2 (a healthy weight) to 28.0 kg/m 2 or greater (overweight and obese). Researchers found that men who already had a heart attack or stroke with a BMI of 28 kg/m 2 or greater did not have a significantly greater risk of overall death or death from cardiovascular disease.

According to Sesso, "For those men who have already suffered from a heart attack or stroke, researchers must identify stronger risk factors than body mass index for mortality to ensure that an optimal secondary prevention strategy is used."

Risk of stroke from obesity is now measurable

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:26:36 -0400

While it has been suspected for some time that being overweight could potentially increase a person's chances of a stroke, a study published in the Dec. 9, 2002, issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine offers some of the first concrete evidence that as a man's weight increases, so do his chances of suffering from a stroke. Stroke accounts for one in every 14 deaths in the U.S., making it the third leading cause of death and disability. For 12 years, 21,414 physicians who participated in the long-running Physicians' Health Study had their body mass index, or BMI - their weight in kilograms divided by the square of their height in meters - recorded. In all, 747 strokes occurred. Men with a BMI of 30 or higher were found to be twice as likely to have a stroke compared with men who had a BMI of less than 23. The analysis also showed that for each unit increase in BMI, a man's chances of having a stroke increased by 6 percent. Generally, a unit increase in BMI translates into a weight gain of roughly 7.4 pounds for a 6-foot man and 6.2 pounds for a 5-foot-6-inch man.