BrewBooks/FlickrPosted on 08/30/2012 12:37:39 PM PDT by neverdem
Having a normal overall BMI and a beer belly ("abdominal obesity") was found to be more dangerous than having a BMI in the obese range.
BrewBooks/Flickr
PROBLEM: While the relationship between obesity and cardiovascular health is well understood, less is known about the risks associated with "central obesity," or excessive fat concentrated around the abdomen. A gut, if you will. Are those with fat primarily in this region at higher risk of death due to cardiovascular problems than those who are obese?
METHODOLOGY: A representative sample of 12,785 American adults was culled from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Study, which took place between 1988 and 1994, and matched to National Death Index. The subjects were grouped as normal, overweight, and obese based on their BMI, and then were further grouped as having a normal or high waist-to-hip ratio. In analyzing the risk of death, the researchers adjusted for age, gender, and race and for confounding factors like smoking, hypertension, and diabetes. The data was followed up this year.
RESULTS: Of the 2,562 subjects who have passed away since this data was initially collected, 1,138 deaths were cardiovascular related. The risk of death for people of normal weight with central obesity was 2.08 times higher than for people with both a normal BMI and a normal waist-to-hip ratio. The risk of cardiovascular death, specifically, was 2.75 times higher for the former group. Both total and cardiovascular mortality were also higher in the group with normal BMI and a high waist-to-hip ratio than even in those with BMIs in the obesity range.
CONCLUSION: Having a pot belly, even if you have a normal body mass index, is associated with significantly increased -- even doubled -- mortality. It's even more dangerous...
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
“Having a pot belly, even if you have a normal body mass index, is associated with significantly increased — even doubled — mortality.”
Damn — that’s disturbing enough to drive a person to drink. To guzzle a few beers, and chow down on some comfort food.
Us old, fat, f.....s don’t want to hear this. It would be nice to know what the proper ratios are.
I’ll drink to that.
Get in mah bellah!
Any apple-shaped person will tell you that one or more of their ancestors had the same shape. It's hereditary. All the studies in the world cannot change a person's genetic makeup, so stop wasting money just to let us know that our genes are going to kill us early.
Hope you are doing well. Are you officiating this football season?
5.56mm
This is not really new news. This information has been around gosh for 15 or 20 years I think. BTW a disturbing thing I noticed when I was teaching high school (which was now almost 10 years ago and I doubt it has gotten better) was that the teenage girls were tending to be fat around the middle. That used to be the pattern of weight gain for boys, but not so much for girls. Something going on other than JUST carrying more weight. Girls should tend to carry it around the hips, not the belly.
I don’t believe any studies anymore. They all have an agenda.
If Obama wins, they will deny care to anyone they deem “fat”. (I’m not fat, nor do I have a belly, so I will be denied because I’m a conservative) : )
Fat.....the new criminal.
I suspect this is the case because of MAST cell clusters.
In our fat, there are clusters of cells called MAST cells.
“A MAST cell (also known as mastocyte and labrocyte) is a resident cell of several types of tissues and contains many granules rich in histamine and heparin. Although best known for their role in allergy and anaphylaxis, MAST cells play an important protective role as well, being intimately involved in wound healing and defense against pathogens.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mast_cells
But there is a two fold problem with MAST cells. The first is that when irritated, they start to produce histamines and heparin, the presence of which tends to cause more of these to be generated by other MAST cells.
Unless these cells turn off, the effect is like having a persistent internal allergy with few external symptoms, and over the course of years this can actually damage you. It can also create other auto-immune problems like some types of arthritis.
The other problem is that when you have a normal amount of fat, you have a given number of MAST cell clusters, but when you gain fat, you get *more* than proportionately more MAST cell clusters. So, in a manner of speaking, when something happens to an obese person that irritates their MAST cells, they get something like a severe allergic response that is chronic.
Which is very bad for you.
To make matters worse, irritated MAST cells make it easier to gain weight and harder to lose weight. So they are the gift that keeps on giving.
Any person, male or female can lose the apple shape if they really want to..most don't...they don't care.
Not all-don't throw all out with the bath water. ..we do have a major obesity problem...that is undeniable.
I was eating french fries when I saw this photo. It inspired me to throw the rest out the window. Enjoy, birdies!
There is no way he gets in that bathroom behind him.
Why can’t I get paid for these studies. Goodness I could have the study done in five minutes. I bet this stupid study took 50 people and 3 years to figure out. Oh and spent 400,000 dollars to find the conclusion that all of us on Free Republic could have figured out in five minutes.
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