Belly Fat linked to increase of Death Risk

According to a large-scale European study that large waistline can almost double your premature death risk even if your body mass index is within the “normal” range. For the study, published in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine, researchers tracked nearly 360,000 men and women in nine European countries for about a decade. Study participants ranged in age from 25 to 70.

Researchers followed about 360,000 Europeans enrolled in one of the largest, longest health studies in the world.

Researchers found that even patients who would be considered at normal weight, according to their BMI, faced increased risk of death if they had a large waist.

The researchers also calculated that, for a five-centimeter, or about two-inch, increase in waist size for patients with any given BMI score, the risk of death increased by 17% for men and by 13% for women. The researchers found similar trends when they compared waist-to-hips ratios.

“Our study shows that accumulating excess fat around your middle can put your health at risk even if your weight is normal,” he 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.”

He said future research should focus on whether treatment for weight problems should focus on preventing increases in waist size rather than holding down weight overall.