The following news has featured in a number of newspapers in the UK today:



The Times, London, UK
13 October, 2003

Having a big waist can increase your risk of diabetes and heart disease

WATCH your waist, not your weight, a doctor will tell the National Obesity Forum meeting in London today.
It is not total weight but where you carry it that matters most, according to Anthony Barnett, Professor of Medicine at the University of Birmingham, and a leading expert on the links between obesity and diabetes.

Fat around the stomach, a “beer gut” or apple shape, could prove deadly but the same amount of weight carried on the thighs, the pear shape, will be less so.



The reason, only now becoming clear, is that fat cells around the stomach are different from fat cells elsewhere. The unwanted chemicals they pump out can damage the insulin system, raising the risk of diabetes and heart disease.

Professor Barnett plans to say that it is time to throw away the bathroom scales and reach for the tape measure. He will say: “Waist measurements can predict the risks of type 2 diabetes and heart disease more accurately than weight.

“Men with waists of more than 40in and women with waist measurements of more than 35in are at an incredibly high risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

“Thicker waistlines may double to quadruple these risks, compared to those with slimmer waistlines. Even a lower waist of 37in in men and 32in in women may significantly raise the risk of either of these diseases, if not both.” Professor Barnett will be a keynote speaker at the conference taking place today and tomorrow.

“We’re reaching the point where if obesity increases at the present rate, within the next ten years some 10 per cent of the population will suffer from diabetes and its related complications,” he will say.

Type 2 diabetes can be caused by insulin resistance, triggered in part by excess weight around the abdomen.

Insulin produced in the pancreas stops working properly in overweight and obese people. The fatter the person, and the larger their waistline, the more resistant to insulin they become.

“The more resistant you are to insulin, the more insulin the body has to produce from the pancreas gland in order to have the same effect,” Professor Barnett believes.

“Eventually the pancreas becomes exhausted and either stops producing as much insulin, or in severe cases, may stop producing insulin altogether.”

Professor Barnett and his colleagues have been in the forefront of the growing understanding that fat cells around the waistline are not simply passive lumps of lard, but are highly active, producing and pumping out proteins and hormones.

In small doses these are necessary but in excess they cause damage not just to the way insulin is used, but also by raising blood pressure and increasing the amount of cholesterol in the bloodstream.

Professor Barnett points out that people aged 40 and over, even of relatively average weight, may double their risks of developing type 2 diabetes and heart disease if they gain a stone. “Any weight gain in the 40-65 age group is associated with insulin not working properly in body tissue and muscle.” The solution, according to Professor Barnett, lies in shedding pounds in those who are overweight, and preventing those extra pounds from building up in those of normal weight.

Drug treatments are also being tested. Drugs belonging to the glitazone family, currently given to type 2 diabetes sufferers before they need insulin, are being tested on those at risk of developing the disease, to gauge whether they may be used to prevent, as well as treat the condition.



http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspa...1306869,00.html



Similar article on the BBC News site:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3737064.stm