'Yo-yoing' weight, BP may raise heart attack, stroke risk: Study

Fluctuations in weight, blood pressure, cholesterol or blood sugar levels in otherwise healthy people may be associated with a higher risk of heart attack, stroke and early death, a study has warned.

The study, published in the journal Circulation, suggests that a high variability of these risk factors has a negative impact on relatively healthy people.

During an average 5.5 year follow-up period, those with the highest amount of variability on all measurements were 127 per cent more likely to die, 43 per cent more likely to have a heart attack and 41 per cent more likely to have a stroke.

Researchers from the Catholic University of Korea in South Korea examined data on 6,748,773 people who had no previous heart attacks and were free of diabetes, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol at the beginning of the study.

All participants had at least three health examinations between 2005 and 2012.

Records of the exams documented body weight, fasting blood sugar, systolic (top number) blood pressure and total cholesterol.

Since high variability could result from either positive or negative changes, the researchers looked separately at the effect of variability in participants who were more than five per cent improved or worsened on each measurement.

In both the improved and the worsened groups, high variability was associated with a significantly higher risk of death.

"Healthcare providers should pay attention to the variability in measurements of a patient's blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose levels as well as body weight," said Seung-Hwan Lee, a professor at the Catholic University of Korea.

"Trying to stabilise these measurements may be an important step in helping them improve their health," Lee said.