Obesity blamed for dramatic rise in heart deaths
The numbers show obesity’s growing effects on American hearts:
- 180 percent increase. The amount of Americans who died from obesity-related heart disease nearly tripled from 1999 to 2020, according to an analysis presented at American Heart Association’s 2024 scientific sessions held in Chicago. The death rate information on 226,267 people came from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s WONDER database.
- 243 percent increase. Age-adjusted death rate for men from ischemic heart disease climbed from 2.1 per 100,000 in 1999 to 7.2 per 100,000 in 2020. Ischemic or coronary heart disease occurs when deposits of cholesterol form plaque on the interior walls of blood vessels, restricting blood flow to heart muscle, which can lead to a heart attack. Obesity is associated with ischemic heart disease, as well as high blood pressure, high blood levels of cholesterol and type 2 diabetes.
- 5.03 percent increase. Annual rise in ischemic heart disease deaths over the study period.
According to 2023 CDC data, 20 percent of Americans are obese and 35 percent of those living in 23 states are obese.
“It’s definitely alarming for everybody,” said cardiologist Elissa Thompson, MD, of the findings. She practices at Cape Cod Healthcare Cardiovascular Center – Chatham.
The analysis reported the highest death rates for 2020 occurred among men (7.2 per 100,000), Black Americans (3.93 per 100,000) and people in the Midwest (3.3 per 100,000), Dr. Thompson noted. In comparison, lower rates were found for women (1.6 per 100,000) and people in the Northeast (2.8 per 100,000). The exception in the Northeast was Vermont, with the highest state rate (10.4 per 100,000). The lowest state rate was Alabama (1.5 per 100,000).
The dramatic rise in ischemic heart deaths blamed on obesity might partially be caused by obesity increasingly being listed as a contributing factor on death reports, Dr. Thompson speculated.
“We can see these rates going up. Is it because we’re more aware?” she said, adding there’s no doubt obesity has become more prevalent over the past 25 years.
The results need more research, said analysis lead author Aleenah Mohsin of Brown University in Providence, RI, in an American Heart Association article on the analysis. Mohsin said the size of the increase in death rates was larger than expected, and the results for Vermont and Alabama need study. Vermont’s not known for high obesity rates, she said.
Obesity and Heart Disease
“We have to take a harder look at the obesity epidemic,” Dr. Thompson said, adding that cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death.
“More people die of cardiovascular disease than every man, woman and child who dies of cancer.”
Dr. Thompson said medicine has made significant progress with drugs to lower high blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and recently, in treatment of obesity and diabetes with GLP-1 agonists – drugs that slow digestion and reduce cravings. These drugs include Ozempic, Zepbound and Wegovy and Mounjaro.
“My patients that take GLP-1s often don’t have to take as much blood pressure medicine, or statins (for cholesterol). They get more active. It doesn’t hurt their joints as much to be active. It’s just a breakthrough with these drugs,” she said.
Availability of the drugs is somewhat limited, as they are expensive and not always covered by insurance – a situation Dr. Thompson said she hopes improves with increased production.
The link between obesity and heart disease shows in her cardiology practice, Dr. Thompson said.
“At least 70 percent of my patients are obese.”
Health professionals need to view obesity not as a personal failing but as an illness, she said.
“Obesity is not just a number, it’s a disease. It has multiple negative effects” she said, referring to a BMI (body mass index) score of 30 or higher.
“It’s important to talk about it. It has consequences – clearly fatal consequences.”
