Multiple Dangers of Epidemic Abdominal Obesity

I was reading a study that came out last year and was very intrigued with the results… measuring the waist is a great tool to determine your risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD), kidney disease, arthritis and even cancer! 

Below are some of the key points.

April 1, 2008, Vol. 117, pp. 1624-1626

Adrian J. Cameron, MPH; Paul Z. Zimmet, MD, PhD, FRACP, FRCP

1.  American’s waistlines have been expanding for decades, and many other countries and communities worldwide are following the American Lead.
2. Obesity increases the risk for conditions such as type 2 diabetes mellitus, the metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease (CVD), kidney disease, arthritis, cancer, asthma, and sleep-disordered breathing.
3. Obesity is a strong and robust predictor of both overall and cardiovascular disease mortality in men and women.
4. There is a strong relationship between central obesity and cancer mortality.
5. There appears to be a roughly linear association between waist circumference and mortality, and “a reduced waist circumference decreases mortality risk”
6. Abdominal obesity is a strong predictor or obesity-related health outcomes.
7. In women, both BMI and waist circumference provide important components of mortality risk.
8. Monitoring changes in waist size is as important, or even more important, than monitoring changes in weight and BMI.”
9. “The simple measurement of waist circumference should be strongly encouraged in the clinical setting and also as a health promotion message to encourage prevention of the multiple obesity-related outcomes such as type 2 diabetes mellitus, CVD and also death.”
10. The health implications from obesity needs to be particularly directed at younger populations because “they have a lifetime in which the consequences of their obesity can be played out, and they have a longer tine in which their adiposity can further increase. For these reasons, a push to curb childhood and adolescent obesity is of paramount importance.

That’s a few more reasons why we should make it a goal to take a few inches off the waist this year!