Fat guys in their middle age can still reduce the risk of heart failure

For some reason, most people get out of shape when they enter middle age. But that doesn’t mean that they should despair as there is still hope for them to get fit and reduce the risk of heart failure.

In a research presented at the American Heart Association’s Quality of Care and Outcomes Research Scientific Sessions 2013 , researchers categorized the fitness levels of 9,050 men and women (average age 48) that underwent two fitness tests — eight years apart – all through their mid-life. After 18 years, they studied the fitness information to know more about the chance of heart failure hospitalizations.

Ambarish Pandey, M.D., lead author of the study and doctor of a university in Dallas said that the participants weren’t fit prior to the study have a higher risk of heart failure by the age of 65 and beyond compared to their counterparts that were fit. However, there is still hope for those who are able to switch to an active lifestyle to lessen the occurrence of heart failure compared to those who do nothing to improve their fitness level.

The researchers based the results on metabolic equivalents (METs), a measure that is done on a treadmill. Whenever a participant improves their MET, their risk of heart failure drops by 20 percent. Those who was used to jogging for 12 minutes per mile and switch to running for 10 minutes per mile increases their MET by 2, their chances of heart failure greatly reduces by 40 percent.