The twin epidemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes will continue to fuel an explosion in heart failure, already the world's most prevalent chronic cardiovascular disease, according to John McMurray, professor of cardiology at the Western Infirmary, Glasgow, and President of the Heart Failure Association. He reported that around one-third of patients with heart failure have evidence of diabetes, and for them the outlook is very serious. For doctors, he added, effective treatment is "very difficult".
Obesity, like diabetes, is increasing in prevalence. The latest report from Euroaspire, Europe's largest survey of cardiovascular risk factors in coronary patients, found that the prevalence of obesity had increased from 25 per cent in 1997 to 38 per cent in just ten years - and this in people who had already had at least one heart attack.
Now, a session at Heart Failure 2009 emphasises that obesity is not just associated with an increased risk of heart attack, but also - and especially - with an increased risk of heart failure.1,2 "Obesity is at least as great a risk factor for heart failure as it is for heart attack or stroke," says Professor McMurray. "Obesity more than doubles the risk."