Obesity is a known risk factor for cardiovascular disease, but a person’s weight can change over time, and little is known about the cumulative effects of excess weight. A new study by researchers at the Massachusetts General Brigham Research Institute shows that long-term exposure to excess weight is a stronger predictor of cardiovascular risk than body mass index (BMI) at any given point in time, and the effect is strongest in young people. The result is pro swansuggest that losing weight and reducing exposure to excess weight may reduce a person’s cardiovascular risk.
Excess weight at a certain point is not a life sentence. What happens to your weight over time is more important for heart health. Our research suggests that losing weight may improve your health. ”
Alexander Turchin, MD, MS, Department of Endocrinology, Brigham General Hospital, Massachusetts
Researchers analyzed data from 136,498 participants in the Nurses’ Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study. When the study began in 1990, all study participants had a baseline body mass index of >25 kg/m2 and ranged in age from 25 to 69 years for women and from 43 to 80 years for men. To estimate cumulative exposure to excess BMI over a 10-year period, researchers averaged participants’ BMI measurements from 1990 to 2000. They began tracking participants’ cardiovascular health in 2000 and have continued to do so since then. The average is 16.7 years. During that time, 12,048 (8.8%) of the participants experienced a cardiovascular event, such as a heart attack or stroke.
The research team found a strong relationship between long-term exposure to excess weight and increased risk of cardiovascular disease. This effect was strongest among people in younger age groups and those with the highest cumulative exposure to excess body weight. For example, women who were younger than 35 years at baseline had a 60% higher risk of cardiovascular disease with higher cumulative exposure to excess weight, compared with 27% for women aged 35 to 50 years and 23% for men aged 35 to 65 years. There was no association in women over 50 or men over 65.
“These findings should give patients and their clinicians the impetus to address excess weight to improve long-term health,” Turchin said.
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Reference magazines:
Turchin, A. Others. (2026). Long-term cumulative excess weight exposure and cardiovascular risk: A prospective cohort study. pro swan. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0344620. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0344620
