Healing often means paying attention to your body.
Spotting anything that may be suspicious — anything that is out of the ordinary — can be extremely important in getting an underlying health condition diagnosed as quickly as possible.
A new study is very interesting, as it suggests that your waistband could help predict your risk for one of society’s biggest ailments: diabetes. Diabetes is commonly associated with obesity or being overweight. Published in March’s American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, this study says a man’s waistline is a better gauge of diabetes risk than what doctors commonly use: body mass index (BMI). BMI is a measure of one’s height and weight.
The reason this article refers only to men is that it comes from a long-term trial called the Harvard Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. It tracked only men — 27,000 to be exact — over a period of 13 years. The intriguing waistline finding was as such: when researchers compared waist circumference with men who developed diabetes, they found that the bigger the waist, the greater the risk. This is true whether or not the man is overweight.
Specifically, men who had the largest waistlines — 40 inches or more — had a 12 times’ greater risk of developing diabetes than those with the smallest waists. Here are some other facts on the link between diabetes and men’s waistlines:
- Waists between 34.3 and 35.9 inches = twice the risk
- Waists between 36 and 37.8 inches = three times the risk
- Waists between 37.9 and 39.8 inches = five times the risk
Researchers speculate that the explanation behind the diabetes link may be due to the characteristics of the fat around the waist. This would support earlier studies suggesting that the fat around your waist has a more negative health impact than fat found elsewhere on the body.
Moreover, the researchers say that the federal government’s suggested waist size — which currently sits at 40 inches in the U.S. — needs to be lowered. So, if you have a waist measurement that falls into one of the risk areas (and let’s be honest, most of us do, or are very close), then focusing on your stomach area during exercise is a good bet. If you are at risk, then now is the time to lose some weight, or else face an increased threat of developing diabetes. Easier said than done, of course.
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