Obesity might be viewed as one of the leading causes for heart problems, but latest studies have revealed that obese heart patients have better chances of surviving strokes and heart attacks than their lean counterparts.

The studies show that obese heart patients live longer than lean patients and respond better to treatment.

This is called the obese paradox and the latest studies are showing that it is true! In technical terms this phenomenon is known as "reverse epidemiology" where obesity and even high cholesterol may have protective benefits and be linked with a greater survivability in certain groups of people for instance the very elderly and those with certain chronic diseases.

"Even now a lot of cardiologists haven't heard of this or don't believe it," says cardiologist Carl J. Lavie, MD, of the Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans.

This does not mean in anyway whatsoever that obesity is justifiable by any means because it is still held as the leading cause of preventable death in the U. S., and the majority of those deaths are directly or indirectly linked to cardiovascular disease.