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The Obesity Paradox in Heart Failure: What Is Real Obesity in Heart Failure?

  • Obesity + Diet (G. Rao, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

The obesity is a conventional cardiovascular risk factor. Obesity has detrimental effects on heart failure, but has been found to be paradoxically associated with improved survival. The obesity paradox remains controversial in the literatures. There are various underlying mechanisms to explain the obesity paradox in heart failure. Epidemiologic, biochemical, animal studies revealed this unexpected phenomenon, which was described as an obesity paradox. BMI does not provide information body composition and cardiopulmonary fitness status, which can be related to obesity paradox. Still, the obesity paradox is controversial; therefore, intentional weight gaining may not be recommended. Many researches related to obesity paradox have been introduced and further research needs to be done in the future.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, Metropolitan Hospital, New York Medical College, 1901 1st Ave, New York, NY, 10029, USA

    Hong Seok Lee, Amrut Savadkar, Eder Hans Cativo & Hans Alexi Reyes Garay

  2. Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Metropolitan Hospital, New York Medical College, New York, NY, USA

    Ferdinand Visco, Savi Mushiyev & Gerald Pekler

Authors
  1. Hong Seok Lee
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  2. Ferdinand Visco
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  3. Savi Mushiyev
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  4. Gerald Pekler
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  5. Amrut Savadkar
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  6. Eder Hans Cativo
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  7. Hans Alexi Reyes Garay
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Correspondence to Hong Seok Lee.

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Conflict of Interest

Drs Lee, Visco, Mushiyev, Pekler, Savadkar, Cativo, and Reyes Garay have no conflicts of interests.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by the author.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Obesity + Diet

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Lee, H.S., Visco, F., Mushiyev, S. et al. The Obesity Paradox in Heart Failure: What Is Real Obesity in Heart Failure?. Curr Cardiovasc Risk Rep 10, 28 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12170-016-0510-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12170-016-0510-9

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