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Item #8.
Waist Circumference/Body Mass
Index Together Predict Disease Risk
Together a more accurate predictor of health risks
Combining
waist circumference and body mass index measurements appears to
provide a more accurate predictor of obesity-related health risks
than the use of either measurement alone.
Overweight and obesity, particularly in the abdominal area, are
associated with a variety of health risks, including
cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.
Clinical
practitioners have employed waist circumference (WC) and body mass
index (BMI) as measures to identify patients with elevated
concentrations of total and abdominal fat. In a study of white men
and women who varied widely by age and body type, Janssen et al.
found that WC and BMI each independently predict the distribution
of non-abdominal, abdominal, and visceral fat stores. The study
was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
The
subjects, 206 men and 135 women, were all healthy and varied in
age from 18 to 88 years and in BMI from 16 to 48 kg/m, with a BMI
of 25 considered the cutoff point between normal weight and
overweight, and more than 30 for obesity. In addition to body
weights and waist circumferences, total, non-abdominal, and
abdominal subcutaneous and visceral fat distributions were
determined using whole-body magnetic resonance imaging.
Body mass
index and WC were correlated independently with fat stores, but in
men, BMI was more strongly correlated with all body fat
distribution than was WC. Fat depots were also compared after a
subdivision of the cohort into three BMI groups (normal,
overweight, and class I obese between 30 and 35) and three WC
groups (low, intermediate, and high). Within each BMI category,
those in the high WC category had substantially greater abdominal
fat compared to those in the low WC category. Though BMI and WC
each independently predicted non-abdominal, abdominal
subcutaneous, and visceral fat stores, the authors propose that
BMI and WC combined better predict abdominal obesity and its
associated health risks than does either variable alone.
American Society
for Clinical Nutrition
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Did
You Know:
Metformin
(Glucophage) is used to control the symptoms of Polycystic Ovary
Syndrome (PCO) by attacking insulin resistance, not unlike the
reasons it is used for diabetes treatment. PCO affects 5-10% of
women, whether or not they have diabetes.
Women with PCO have increased rates of miscarriage. There was
concern about using Glucophage through pregnancy due the
possibility of increasing the risk of miscarriage. J Clin
Endocrinol Metab, Feb 2002, 87(2): 524-529 researched the risk.
Those who received metformin throughout the pregnancy had a
miscarriage rate of 8.8% as compared with 41.9% of those who did
not have metformin.
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