Who would have thought that having a beer belly is more lethal than obesity? Web Md shed light into the 'beer belly' phenomenon which affects numerous individuals worldwide. As per the website, it is not necessarily composed of beer but by too much calories which can turn an individual's waist line into a budging belly over your pants. Though it made of calories, alcohol makes a huge contribution with the bulging fat on the mid-section.
An endocrine expert and obesity researcher with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Michael Jensen, MD stated that the alcohol that the individual is drinking is being burned by the liver instead of fat.
"In general, alcohol intake is associated with bigger waists, because when you drink alcohol, the liver burns alcohol instead of fat,"
As per The Telegraph, a cardiologist from the Mayo Clinic at Minnesota, Dr Francisco Lopez Jimenez stated that Waist Circumference is often linked to cardiovascular morality.
"Obesity defined by BMI or measures of central obesity, such as waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and waist circumference, is associated with increased total and cardiovascular mortality, however, a recent meta-analysis showed that being overweight according to BMI was actually associated with lower total mortality, challenging the paradigm that BMI is linked to increased mortality. Further whether measures of fat distribution provide any incremental risk information beyond BMI alone has been a major source of controversy
Dr Jimenez then added:
"Normal-weight central obesity defined by WHR is associated with higher mortality than BMI-defined obesity, particularly in the absence of central fat distribution. Our findings suggest that persons with normal-weight central obesity may represent an important target population for lifestyle modification and other preventive strategies. Future studies should focus on identifying factors associated with the development of normal-weight central obesity and better understanding the effect of normal-weight central obesity on health outcomes. Until such data are available, the use of BMI with measures of central obesity may provide better adiposity-related risk factor stratification cal practice than either method alone."
