Abdominal Obesity is Harmful

By Laura Ng

Do not take lightly that extra fat around your waist. It affects your health in more ways than just being an ugly sight.

Poor lung function

A research published in the medical journal, Chest stated there’s a relationship between lung function and overall obesity and abdominal adiposity (collection of fats) in 2,153 adults in New York.

In fact, abdominal adiposity was a better predictor of lung function than weight or body mass index (BMI). The research further showed that increasing obesity, in particular abdominal obesity, is inversely related with lung function.

For instance, women with a large waist circumference and abdominal height (base-to-top belly measurement) were more likely to suffer from poor lung function.

Cardiovascular disease

And this is only one of the many detrimental effect. Abdominal fat surrounds organs or visceral fat (stubborn fat within the tissues). This leads to unwanted blood clotting and formation of plague in the blood vessels, thereby putting you at risk of a heart attack or stroke when the plague rupture and block the vessels.

That’s why abdominal obesity is one of the culprit in Metabolic Syndrome, an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

Metabolic Syndrome is a cluster of conditions comprising of high blood pressure, high blood sugar and lipid abnormalities.

Doctors agree that in the United States, if obesity problem persists, Metabolic Syndrome may soon overtake cigarette smoking as the primary risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

Colon Cancer

Another report in the International Journal of Cancer proved that women with large waists were at higher risk of colon cancer.

In this research, out of the 24,000 women involved in this 10 years research, 212 women were diagnosed with colon cancer during the follow-up sessions.

The researchers found that as the central adiposity (estimated by waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio) rose, so too did the risk of colon cancer.

A possible explanation could be exercise can lower the risk of colon cancer, therefore the lack of it will increase the risk. The researchers also feel that a fat-related hormone called leptin associated with colon cancer could also be the cause.

Although cancer may not cause by dietary fat intake alone, one thing doctors do agree is that carrying too much fat around your waist definitely does more harm than good.

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Article Source: EzineArticles.com/?expert=Laura_Ng