Irregular BP, sugar readings may up heart attacks, stroke risks

People with fluctuations in weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar levels are more likely to be at a higher risk of developing heart attack, stroke, and death, compared to those with more stable readings, a new research suggests.

The researchers found that high variability was associated with a significantly higher risk of death by 127 percent, heart attacks by 43 percent and stroke by 41 percent, compared to those who had stable measurements.

“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, Professor at the College of Medicine, the Catholic University of Korea in South Korea.

“Trying to stabilize these measurements may be an important step in helping them improve their health,” Lee added.

For the study, published in the journal Circulation, the team examined data on 6,748,773 participants who had no previous history of heart attacks and were free of diabetes, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol.

They looked separately at the effect of variability in participants who were more than 5 percent improved or worsened on each measurement — stable and high.

Records of the exams documented body weight, fasting blood sugar — glucose test, systolic blood pressure, and total cholesterol.

Systolic blood pressure refers to the amount of pressure in your arteries during the contraction of your heart muscle.

The results showed that in both the improved and the worsened groups, high variability was associated with a significantly higher risk of death.