Everybody sits on it and some people are said to talk out of it, but one thing a rear end is not associated with in most minds is disease risk.
But according to University of Westminster health researchers in Britain, changes to the shape of a person’s behind “may reflect underlying metabolic differences” that in turn could signal how likely someone is to develop type 2 diabetes.
Drawing on health data covering over 80,000 people in Britain, the team found indications that there are “distinct, sex-specific patterns in the gluteus maximus that were associated with type 2 diabetes”.
Going from pert to bony or bubbly to wobbly could be a bad sign, it turns out.
Of those found to have developed diabetes, “men showed muscle shrinkage, while women showed enlarged muscle that was likely due to infiltration of fat within the muscle”, the researchers said.
The findings “suggest that men and women have very different biological responses to the same disease”.
For those worried about having a big booty, diabetes risk should not be among the reasons for concern.
The team suggests that what counts is the shape and not the size.
“Unlike past studies that mainly looked at muscle size or fat, we used 3D shape mapping to pinpoint exactly where the muscle changes, giving a much more detailed picture,” said study co-author and Life Sciences research fellow Dr Marjola Thanaj at the university’s Research Centre for Optimal Health.
“People with higher fitness, as measured by vigorous physical activity and hand grip strength, had a greater gluteus maximus shape, while ageing, frailty and long sitting times were linked to muscle thinning,” she said before presenting the findings at the 2025 annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), which ended on Dec 4 in Chicago, the United States. – dpa
