Nov 15, 2008
Belly Fat Doubles Death Risk
Increased Risk Not Limited to Those Considered Obese, Long-Term European Study Finds
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Researchers in Europe found that excess fat around the belly is more dangerous than fat elsewhere on the body, and doubles the risk of premature death, even for people who are not considered obese. (CBS)
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Researchers followed about 360,000 Europeans enrolled in one of the largest and longest health studies in the world.
They found that people with the most belly fat had about double the risk of dying prematurely of the people with the least amount of belly fat. Death risk increased with waist circumference, whether the participants were overweight or not.
The study provides some of the strongest evidence yet linking belly fat to early death, says lead author Tobias Pischon, MD, MPH. It appears in the Nov. 12 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.
"Our study shows that accumulating excess fat around your middle can put your health at risk even if your weight is normal," Pischon says. "There aren't many simple individual characteristics that can increase a person's risk of premature death to this extent, independent of smoking and drinking."
Belly Fat Research
It has long been recognized that people who carry their excess weight around their middles - those who are apple-shaped instead of pear-shaped - have a higher risk for heart attacks and strokes.
Recent research also suggests a link between belly fat and a range of other diseases, including diabetes, some cancers, and even age-related dementias.
But it has not been clear whether the increase in death risk associated with abdominal obesity occurs independently of recognized risk factors like general obesity, Pischon says.
The researchers used two measures of abdominal obesity - waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio - in their attempt to better understand the role of belly fat in early death.
They examined data on 359,387 European adults followed for nearly 10 years who were enrolled in the larger, ongoing European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) health study.
During the follow-up period, 14,723 of the study participants died.
After adjusting for overweight and obesity, as measured by body mass index (BMI), waist circumference and waist-to-hip measurements were both independently associated with an increased risk for early death.
Specifically:
women).
"The most important result of our study is the finding that not just being overweight, but also the distribution of body fat, affects the risk of premature death," Pischon says.
The findings come as no surprise to University of Michigan cardiologist and
research scientist Daniel Eitzman, MD.
Quote
Work by Eitzman and colleagues in mice found that belly fat - also known as visceral fat - produces more inflammation than fat found in other areas of the body. There aren't many simple individual characteristics that can increase a person's risk of premature death to this extent, independent of smoking and drinking.
Tobias Pischon, study authorInflammation is thought to play a key role in heart disease and a host of other chronic diseases.
Eitzman tells WebMD that measurement of waist circumference or waist-to-hip ratio are important for assessing the risk of inflammation-driven disease.
"Studies like this focus attention on the importance of measuring visceral fat, which is not now routinely done in clinical practice," he says.
Are You an Apple or a Pear?
So how do you tell if you have more belly fat than is healthy?
By Salynn Boyles
Reviewed by Elizabeth Klodas
©2005-2008 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved.
The secrets of tennis legend 
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See all 24 CommentsPosted by spaceatoms at 12:29 PM : Nov 16, 2008
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And McDonalds too -- that''s the same successful McDonalds that got $1.5 million in government subsidy (welfare) to go peddle Chicken McNuggets in the country of Turkey...
"I don''t mind the idea of death, I just don''t want to be there when it happens" - Woody Allen
"Luckily, death is one those things that is done just as easily laying down" - Woody Allen
Posted by airboatboy1 at 04:32 AM : Nov 16, 2008
I was always told that living would be the death of me, and that there as no way I was getting out of this life, alive........
it''s a bear convention.
Posted by thisandthat1 at 11:05 PM : Nov 15, 2008
You also don''t see many obese geriatrics......
How do they know some of these obese people aren''t overwieght because of heart sickness or something else that causes both heart disease and obesity? Seeems to me like they ought to reduce their blinders just a little.
Still, vegetables and fruit can go a long way in helping your body get all the chemistry it needs. Exercise your body and your brain, and don''t get hit by a bus, and chances are you''ll live a healthy long life. Could I get a couple million $$$ to study the already known and obvious too?
A recent Stanford study found that people who engage in aerobic exercise in middle age and later live longer and have healthier lives. It looked at 539 regular runners. They were compared to a control group of 423 people that never ran. All in the study were over 50. Researchers checked in at eight, 13 and again at the 21-year mark.
Exercisers had improved aerobic capacity, better cardiovascular fitness, increased bone density, fewer inflammatory markers, fewer disabilities, improved thinking, learning and memory, longer life - by year 19 of the study, 15% of runners had died, 34% of non-runners. 21 years into the study, the running group reported one disability on average, while never-runners had two disabilities on average and they were more likely to impact daily functioning.
People in their 70s and 80s who exercised continued to show improved health benefits, even when they just turned to walking. Even into their 90s, the runners versus the non-runners continued to show different rates of health. The study did not find any negative impact on joints among runners compared to the more sedentary types, even after looking at x-rays and arthritis rates.
Vigorous and consistent exercise has also been linked to less brain shrinkage in people with symptoms of Alzheimer''s. Also, delayed onset of Parkinson''s and other age-related issues.
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