Obesity and cardiovascular disease.

Cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of mortality in rich countries and today it has the same meaning for health care as the epidemics of past centuries had for medicine in earlier times: 50% of the population in these countries die of cardiovascular disease. The amount of cardiovascular disease is also increasing in the developing countries together with economic growth. By 2015 one in three deaths will globally be due to cardiovascular diseases. Coronary heart disease is a chronic disease that starts in childhood, even if the symptoms first occur in the middle age. The risks for coronary heart disease are well-known: lipid disorders, especially high serum LDL-cholesterol concentration, high blood pressure, tobacco smoking, obesity, diabetes, male gender and physical inactivity. Obesity is both an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease but is also closely connected with several other risk factors. This review focuses on the connection between overweight or obesity and cardiovascular disease.