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‘Higher BMI’s considered normal’
People with a higher BMI are more likely to survive heart attacks, according to a team of German and Swiss doctors.
Reports suggest that people with a BMI of over 25 are likely to recover from heart attacks due to a higher capacity to withstand the effects of the medication to treat the after effects of heart attacks such as cholesterol and high blood pressure.
Although this may appear contradictory to what has been said before, it is perhaps the sign of evolution. Earlier, human beings ate to survive but now it seems as if they live to eat.
According to Dr.Mimi Giri,Head Endocrinologist and Diabetologist at Ghent University Hospital, we have are now evolving from a “famine’ lifestyle to a “feast” lifestyle.
The common Western diet comprises some 40% of calories as fat when atarget diet of 30% fat is desirable.
“There has been a 
dramatic shift in the amount of food consumed as well as the kind of food eaten. The food now is much more fat containing and less nutritious. But the body appears to be adapting to this sort of a diet,” says Dr.Giri.
This change can also be attributed to the lack of physical activity especially with the coming of technology. The impact of modern technology on levels of physical activity is immense, resulting in an increasingly sedentary lifestyle.
Yet all people who do not exercise are not obese. And nor are all those who exercise thin.
Professor Peter Weissberg, Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation (BHF), says:
“Some people are more at risk of becoming obese because of their genes - many of which seem to be associated with appetite and the ability to regulate food intake correctly.
“However, this cannot be the explanation for the current epidemic of obesity since these genes have been present for centuries and the obesity epidemic is a relatively new phenomenon."
“It suggests that some people may be less able than others to resist the temptation to overeat because of their genetic background and it might start to explain why some people have no problem keeping their weight down whilst others struggle.”
Although people with a higher BMI have something to be happy about, it doesn’t take away from the fact that they are more likely to suffer from a heart attack in the first place. Statistics show that people with moderate obesity could have their life shortened by two to five years while those with a BMI of over 45 could shorten heir life span by 13 years.
Dr.Prof.Yves Van Nieuwenhove, Head of Clinic, Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, University Hospital Gent says, “From an evolutionary point of view, we have evolved over the past 4 million years to our actual form. I don’t think we will see an ‘adaptation’ in the next decades.”
