Your weight as a teenager is linked to your risk of heart failure in early middle age

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/esoc-ywa061416.php

Public Release: 16-Jun-2016
Your weight as a teenager is linked to your risk of heart failure in early middle age
European Society of Cardiology

Research that followed more than 1.6 million Swedish men from adolescence onwards between 1968 and 2005 has shown that those who were overweight as teenagers were more likely to develop heart failure in early middle age.

Surprisingly, the increased risk of heart failure was found in men who were within the normal body weight range (a body mass index of 18.5 to 25) in adolescence, with an increased risk starting in those with a BMI of 20 and rising steeply to a nearly ten-fold increased risk in those who were very obese, with a BMI of 35 or over.

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Compared with men who had a BMI of between 18.5 and 20 at the time of conscription, men with a BMI of 20 to 22.5 had a 22% increased risk of heart failure, after adjusting for factors that could affect the results. The risk nearly doubled for those with a BMI between 22.5 and 25, and more than tripled for those with a BMI between 25 and 27.5. The risk increased more than six-fold for those classified as obese with a BMI between 30-35, and was nearly 10-fold for the very obese with a BMI of 35 or more.

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The researchers point out that limitations to the study include the fact that their findings are only applicable to men and that, overall, women have a lower risk of heart failure than men; nor did they have any information on weight gain after the men were conscripted at 18, so that a slightly greater weight at 18, might be an indicator of an increased risk of subsequently becoming overweight or obese, which in itself, would be a risk factor for heart failure. However, the strength of the study is its large size, with over 1.6 million participants.