Atheer – External Sources
Women with a waist that is big in relation to their hips are at greater risk of heart attacks than men of a similar shape, research from the George Institute for Global Health says.
According to BCC, the study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, showed that waist-to-hip ratio is a better heart attack predictor than general obesity. The report found that a high BMI was linked to heart disease risk in both sexes.
The researchers examined nearly 500,000 adults in the United Kingdom aged between 40 and 69.
Dr Sanne Peters, the report’s lead author said “our findings support the notion that having proportionally more fat around the abdomen appears to be more hazardous than more visceral fat, which is generally stored around the hips.”
She said “looking at how fat tissue is distributed in the body, especially in women, can give us more insight into the risk of heart attack than measures of general obesity.”
“Understanding the role sex differences in body fat distribution play in future health problems could lead to sex-specific public health interventions that could address the global obesity epidemic more effectively.”
