In this podcast, Alistair Lindsay talks to Jennifer Logue about the link between obesity and heart disease.

Increasing weight is associated with a higher prevalence of known risk factors for coronary artery disease, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol. And it has been assumed that these have been responsible for the increased risk of heart disease seen in obesity, say the authors. But now research published in Heart suggests that obesity is a killer in its own right, irrespective of other biological or social risk factors traditionally associated with coronary heart disease.

Read the article online: http://heart.bmj.com/content/early/2011/01/24/hrt.2010.211201