The Concept of CMR

Abdominal Obesity vs CVD: Beyond Body Weight

Though most experts agree that soaring obesity rates have played a key role in the rise of chronic complications such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease (CVD), obesity continues to confound clinicians from both an assessment and management standpoint. One of the main reasons why is obesity’s remarkable heterogeneity. For example, some very obese individuals have normal blood pressure, a normal plasma lipid profile, and normal blood glucose despite having a large amount of fat. However, other individuals with an apparently “healthy” body weight sometimes have a disturbed metabolic risk factor profile. In light of this, it is important to stress the importance of abdominal obesity as the form of overweight/obesity most likely to entail the highest risk of CVD.