(AP) - Researchers have found another reason to watch your waistline: Being even modestly overweight increases the chances of developing heart failure.
A study of 5,881 men and women published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine showed that the risk of heart failure is double in obese people and 34 percent higher in those overweight, compared with those of normal weight.
Researchers also determined that the risk rose gradually with weight levels.
"We have one more reason for people who are obese to lose weight and people who are overweight to move toward normal weight," said one of the researchers, Dr. Ramachandran Vasan, of Boston University School of Medicine.
Between 2 million and 3 million Americans have heart failure, which occurs when the heart isn't able to pump enough blood through the body. Symptoms include shortness of breath, fatigue and swollen feet and ankles.
Some of the risk factors for heart failure - diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease - are also linked to excess pounds. The researchers looked at whether the extra weight influences the risk of heart failure.
They reviewed data from the long-running, government-funded Framingham Heart Study and compared weight and the rate of heart failure in the study participants. They were followed for 14 years, and heart failure was diagnosed in 496 of them.
