The Obesity Paradigm and Lifetime Risk of Cardiovascular Disease

To the Editor Khan et al¹ confirm in their 2018 study that obesity is a risk factor in disease-free, healthy populations (ie, in primary prevention). We concur that obesity is a population risk factor for incident disease. However, the authors’ finding is unsuitable to address the potential advantages of obesity in certain clinically relevant disease conditions that are collectively addressed in a condensed form as the obesity paradox or the obesity paradigm.²