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Higher muscle mass may lower mortality risk in CVD
Patients with CVD who have higher muscle mass may have a lower mortality risk than patients with different body compositions, according to data published in American Journal of Cardiology.
The researchers used dual energy X-ray absorptiometry body composition data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999 to 2004 and mortality data from 1999 to 2006 to better understand the obesity paradox. The final analysis included 6,451 participants with CVD. Primary outcomes included death from natural causes and CV mortality.
During the median follow-up of 48 person-months, 925 deaths were reported and participants with high muscle/low fat had a lower risk for CVD mortality (adjusted HR = 0.32; 95% CI, 0.14-0.73) and for total mortality (adjusted HR = 0.38; 95% CI, 0.22-0.68) than participants with low muscle/low fat.
“Our findings highlight the clinical importance of assessing mortality risk using indexes of both fat and muscle mass rather than relying on a general marker of total body mass such as BMI,” the researchers wrote. “In fact, most people with high (greater than median) muscle mass were found in BMI categories 2, 3 and 4 (overweight, obese and morbidly obese). This suggests that higher muscle mass may be the reason the obesity paradox has been noted in overweight and obese people in both healthy populations and those with CVD.” – by Tracey Romero
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.