Developments in Brief : High Blood Pressure More Dangerous for Lean Men Than Overweight Men

A five-year Canadian study involving more than 8,000 people has found that fat men with high blood pressure may be actually better off than lean men with high blood pressure.

“The theoretical thinking was that obesity and hypertension should be additive. What we’re reporting is that that’s not so,” said Dr. Martin Bass of the University of Western Ontario. “Obesity is not anywhere near as terrible a villain as some people make it out to be.”

But he added that obesity associated with diabetes, high cholesterol levels or smoking still is a health risk.

Bass said researchers suspect that obese, hypertensive men may be better off because their blood volumes are greater than lean men and, at similar levels of blood pressure, their arteries may not be as small or constricted.

The study found that overweight, hypertensive men suffered 66% fewer strokes and 26% fewer heart attacks than their lean counterparts. The rate of congestive heart failure was 54% less among obese men with high blood pressure. “We found there was a beneficial effect of having obesity and hypertension in men,” Bass said.

The study also found that heavier men showed no higher death rates from cancer or non-cardiovascular disease.

In all, the study involved 8,486 men and women, between the ages of 45 and 65, across southwestern Ontario. Among the people tracked over a five-year period, the study compared 432 obese men with high blood pressure to 485 lean, hypertensive men, and 587 obese women with high blood pressure to 797 lean, hypertensive women. Bass said results showed no difference among women.