A new study has found waist size to be a more significant contributor to heart attack risk than the actual body weight otherwise known as Body Mass Index (BMI). The study clarified that a pear-shaped body that has its fat buildup around the hips is at lesser risk of heart disease than an apple-shaped body that has its weight around the torso region.
This is against the agelong practice in which a measure of BMI was considered as a more accurate indicator of risk of heart disease, although it is a generally agreed scientific fact that the more overweight a person is, the greater the risk of heart failure. However, the new study is laying more emphasis on the waist size being a more accurate indicator of heart disease than BMI or total body weight and went further to state that, in fact, people having a high BMI is at lower risk of dying from heart ailments. The mysterious phenomenon whereby people with high BMI are found not to be as prone to heart disease rated death has come to be known as "obesity paradox".
This paradox has been explained to result from the fact that BMI is a highly flawed measurement as it does not consider other important parameters such as the location of fat within the individual's body or how muscular the individual is, etc.
"What matters probably the most is the distribution of fat, more than anything else," says the lead researcher, Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, M.D., a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minnesota. Source
Providing more evidence in support of the shortcomings of BMI as a means of determining heart health, Jean Pierre Despres, Ph.D, the director of research at the Quebec Heart and Lung Institute at Lava University, in Quebec City, has this to say:
"If you measure body mass index, you don't assess body shape, you don't assess body fat distribution. I'm not saying BMI is useless. It's just that we need to go beyond that. BMI is the total cholesterol of lipids: We know that there is good and bad cholesterol, and there is good and bad fat." Nor does BMI distinguish between fat and muscle. Heart patients who lead a sedentary lifestyle may see a drop in BMI as they lose muscle mass. While heart-disease patients who become more active may actually put on weight and raise their BMI because they are adding lean muscle." Source
In the study (which was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and involved 200 people with type 2 diabetes but who were not showing any signs of heart disease) the researchers found that people with a larger belly circumference are more likely to have problems with the left ventricles of their hearts than smaller bellied counterparts. The left ventricle is saddled with the responsibility of pumping oxygenated blood to the brain and to other parts of the body.
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Commenting on the study, Doctor Boaz Rosen of Johns Hopkins University in Maryland said...
“We specifically found that waist circumference appears to be a stronger predictor for left ventricle dysfunction than total body weight or body mass index”. Source
It was noted finally that large waist size of more than 35 inches for women and/or 40 inches for men were 70% more likely to die during duration of the experiment that those with smaller waists size. Again, the likelihood of death become more significant with a combination of a large waist and a high BMI.
Are you at a higher risk of heart attack; what is your waist size?
Having learnt how the size of waist could predispose one to a higher risk of heart issues, I will like us to consider this assignment in order to be out of danger. Or at least, know our status with respect to the foregoing discourse. Measure your waist size and compare it with the below standards to really know your status:
For men, between 37 and 40 inches is overweight and more than 40 inches is obese
For women, 31.5-34.6 inches is overweight and more than 34.6 inches is obese
If your waist is not within the healthy range according to the standards stated above, embark on serious exercise to keep the within the healthy range. This is very important. Thank you.
References
Ref1, Ref2, Ref3, Ref4, Ref5
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I am skinny and my waist is too thin :)
Wow it interesting how you can determine that with the size of waist.
My question
I dont know if you understand my question.
Geaat content tho👏👏
A waist of 35 is an indication that one is overweight. Overweight eventually leads to heart diseases because remember it all boils down to cholesterol intake and this cholesterol can cause blockage of the arteries leading to atherosclerosis. Obesity is just one of the factors that can cause heart attack but there are other factors such as smoking, diabetes stress, high blood pressure. So a lady with waist 25 can be also prone to heart attack
Oh thaks ma'ma
Thanks for responding so professionally, my first class brain.
Thank you sir. I'm learning from you
always keep an eye an your bmi :D
Informative one @eurogee,
Our waist is the primary response of the fat deposition you can say, whenever a person starts depositing fat, waist is the first part of body start depositing it and yeah surely your waist size can tell you about the risk of your life.... :)
Good one. Thanks
Keeping an eye on BMI is very important.
But I have a question with this:
Can we really say this with certainty for all cases?
Nothing in life is 100%. It's applicable to a large number of them, about 76%, and can never be all. Thanks
I could clearly remember my undergraduate days, when we would measure our BMIs to know if we're overweight and obesed, this article made remember a whole lot. Thanks for sharing Sir
Nice article.. Reesteemed
Weldone. Thanks for the resteem
Thanks for sharing this info
My waist size is 30 but I think I have added some inches lately due to junks. Thanks for this reminder. I have to bring out my joggers again. Heart disease is a silent killer especially cardio myopathy
Sure.. You have the point
That's informative, I should really hit the gym after chinese new year, too much eating and my waist line is definitely expanding.
Hahahahaha you got me cracked up! Take measures, please
I think i need to measure mine just to be sure, but mostly i wish that all women will read this, especially those that accumulate a lot of fat around the waist just to acquire figure 8 shape. The question is, will they be willing to shade off some fat(i.e, sacrifice their look for their health)?