Originally published November 7 2005
Doctors rethink methods for assessing heart risk in obese people
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Dr. Arya Sharma, a professor of medicine at McMaster University, co-authored a study that demonstrated that waist-to-hip ratios more effectively measure obesity and heart risk than the measure known as body mass index (BMI).
Scientists say they've found a better way of measuring obesity and a person's risk of getting a heart attack than the method used by doctors worldwide for years.
IT has long been thought that fat people are more at risk of a heart attack, but doctors say today that it is not as simple as that.
A large bottom and thighs could be positively healthy --- a "beer belly", on the other hand, spells trouble, no matter how skinny the person may be elsewhere.
Researchers reported in Friday's issue of The Lancet medical journal that a hip-to-waist ratio is a better predictor of the risk of heart attack for a variety of ethnic groups than body-mass index (BMI), the current standard.
BMI (based on a person's weight and height) takes no notice of where a person's fat lies or how muscular that person may be, says Dr. Arya Sharma, co-author of the study and a professor of medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont.
A study of 27,000 people, including more than 14,000 heart disease patients, has found that waist-to-hip ratios can mark out those people more likely to suffer heart failure far more effectively than conventional tests.
The findings are so siginficant because they show that it is a certain type of fat distribution undetectable by BMI tests that is particularly risky.
Researchers found that people with excess abdominal fat were heart attack sufferers, while others could be generally overweight but at no greater risk.
Arya Sharma, co-author and professor of medicine at McMaster University in Canada, told The Times: "A lot of people who do not consider themselves as obese will find they are beyond the cut-off point.
Fat on the abdomen is the killer, not fat on the hips."
Then divide the waist number by the hip number.
All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. Truth Publishing LLC takes sole responsibility for all content. Truth Publishing sells no hard products and earns no money from the recommendation of products. NaturalNews.com is presented for educational and commentary purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice from any licensed practitioner. Truth Publishing assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. For the full terms of usage of this material, visit www.NaturalNews.com/terms.shtml