Widening Waistlines Predict Diabetes in Men - Diabetes Mellitus

[Guest guest]

TUESDAY, March 22 (HealthDay News) -- A new study supplies more proof those

" love handles " and " spare tires " need to go: Researchers say a man's waist

size

beats his body mass index in predicting whether he'll develop type 2

diabetes.

" Abdominal fat measured by waist circumference can indicate a strong risk

for diabetes, whether or not a man is considered overweight or obese

according

to his body mass index [bMI], " study author Dr. Youfa Wang, an assistant

professor at s Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said in a

prepared

statement.

Reporting in the March issue of the American Journal of Clinical

Nutrition,

Wang's team analyzed data collected from more than 27,000 men tracked for

more than 13 years as part of the Harvard Health Professionals Follow-Up

Study.

They found that men with larger waists or higher BMI were both at greater

risk for type 2 diabetes than slimmer men.

Compared to men with the smallest waists (29 to 34 inches), those with

waists of 34.3 to 35.9 inches, 36 to 37.8 inches, 37.9 to 39.8 inches, and

40 to

62 inches were two, three, five and 12 times more likely, respectively, to

develop diabetes.

Based on these findings, the currently recommended waistline of 40 inches or

below for men may need to be lowered, the study authors suggested.

" Many of the men who developed type 2 diabetes had measurements lower than

the cutoff, " Wang pointed out.

-- Preidt

SOURCE: s Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, news release, March

17, 2005