Why that pot belly isn't good for you

A new study probes what your belly fat says about your health. - AFP Photo

If you're carrying too much fat around your midsection, here's good motivation to trim the tummy: A new study finds that people with abdominal fat have a higher risk for health problems.

US researchers found that having excess fat around the abdomen increases your risks for both cancer and heart disease. People with belly fat had a higher cancer risk than people with the same amount of fat on their bodies but whose fat was located in other areas, such as hips or thighs.

“Contrary to previously published studies comparing BMI and waist circumference, the presence of abdominal fat improved the ability to predict for cardiovascular disease, supporting the hypothesis that abdominal fat may partially underlie the association of body fat and heart disease and cancer,” said Caroline S. Fox, MD, MPH, senior author of the study and a senior investigator at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Laboratory for Metabolic and Population Health in Framingham, Massachusetts.

The study relied on CT (computed tomography) scans to locate areas of fat deposits in 3,086 subjects, whose average age was 50 years. Nearly 50% of the subjects were women, and all of the participants were followed for up to seven years.

A waist size of 80cm or larger for a woman and 101cm for a man is considered risky, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Findings from this study were published July 10 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. - AFP Relaxnews