Monday, June 30, 2008

Death Risk Climbs As Waist Circumference Grows

“Even among people with a normal weight, having a big belly may be deadly, a new study shows. ‘People should not only look at their weight, but also consider their waist,’ Dr. Annemarie Koster of the National Institute on Aging, the lead researcher on the study, told Reuters Health. Being overweight or obese is clearly bad for one's health, but the best way to gauge whether a person's fatness is putting them at risk has been ‘controversial,’ Koster and her team write in the American Journal of Epidemiology. Body mass index, or BMI, has been the standard measurement used, they add, but the way fat is distributed throughout the body -- especially at the waistline -- may be even more important than how many excess pounds a person is carrying.”

http://www.reutershealth.com/en/index.html

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