A new study suggests that belly fat is more dangerous for the heart than obesity. Researchers have found that BMI does not really reveal everything about the body condition of a person.
According to the said study, people who have normal body weight with a medium fat stored in their abdomen have a higher risk of dying compared to those who are obese.
The 14-year-old study was conducted by examining the data of almost 15,000 people. The subjects have normal body weights except that they contain massive fat in their bellies. The said research also called as NHANES III, was made successful thru the help of the U.S. based Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
The results show that those women who have normal weights with belly fats are 32% more prone to death compared to those women who are obese. The study also suggests that BMI is not a good measure in identifying the body fat of a certain person. Similar result was also found for men.
Thais Coutinho explained the result of the said survey.
"We found that the group of patients that actually has the highest risk of dying were precisely the patients who had normal BMI, so these are people who are not necessarily heavy for their height, but they were centrally obese," stated by the co-author of the study who is also a cardiologist at the Ottawa Heart Institute.
According to Rad Padwal who is a physician at the University of Alberta's faculty of medicine, the worst fat in the body lies in the midsection part. He said that belly fat is the worst in terms of future risk of cardiovascular diseases and even death. Padwal also added that the sign of having obesity and other cardiovascular complications does not depend on how much fat the person has, but where the fat lies.
The study also shows that those who have large body fats are more prone to heart diseases and even Type II diabetes.
