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Defined: waist circumference that's linked to mortality
Posted: Aug 10, 2010 11:59 AM by Bea Karnes, News First 5
Updated: Aug 10, 2010 12:01 PM
Although obesity has been linked to various health problems -- new research suggests a large mid-section may be particularly risky.
Researchers from the American Cancer Society examined the association between waist circumference and risk of death among more than 100,000 older men and women.
Belly fat is thought to be more dangerous than fat on other parts of the body, because the fat surrounds organs in the abdomen.
In this study, larger waists were associated with a higher risk of death from any cause.
A large waist for men was considered anything over 47 inches and for women it's 42 inches.
Results of this study are published in Archives of Internal Medicine, a publication of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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