Posted in: Heart Disease
Dr. Lopez-Jimenez and his colleagues analyzed data from nearly 16,000 heart patients who participated in one of four previously conducted studies or the Mayo Clinic’s Cardiovascular Rehabilitation Program. More than one-third of the patients died during the studies, which ranged in length from six months to more than seven years.
A high BMI was associated with a 35% lower risk of death, but having a large waist in addition to a high BMI nearly doubled the risk of dying, the researchers found. (To zero in on waist size, they controlled for age, hypertension, diabetes, and other risk factors for heart disease.)
Even heart patients with apple-shaped bodies and BMIs in the normal range were at increased risk of dying sooner, which drives home the fact that normal-weight heart patients may need to lose some weight in their bellies too, Després says. “That’s why it’s so important for clinical cardiologists to measure waist circumference.”
Why is belly fat so bad? It tends to be a sign of visceral fat, or fat that gathers around the organs in the abdomen, the study notes. This fat seems to promote insulin resistance and unhealthy cholesterol numbers, and may also boost inflammation.
Genetics plays a “very strong” role in whether a person gains weight around the waist, Després says. He estimates that about 30% of the population has this tendency to put on fat in these “undesirable sites.”
http://news.health.com/2011/05/02/waist-size-heart-disease/
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