Reduced waistline lowers diabetes and heart risk

People who manage to reduce their waistlines may also lower their risk of developing diabetes and heart disease. Researchers at the French National Health Institute INSERM evaluated the data from an epidemiological study on the insulin resistance syndrome (DESIR), which involved 1,868 men and 1,939 women aged 30–64 years at baseline who were followed over 9 years. It was found that men and women whose waistlines expanded by 3 inches or more over nine years were at increased risk of developing metabolic syndrome — a collection of risk factors that included high blood pressure and unhealthy cholesterol levels, which put a person at risk of diabetes and heart disease. In contrast, women who shed just an inch or more from their abdomens had a lower risk of developing metabolic syndrome than women whose waistlines stayed the same. Moreover, women already suffering from metabolic syndrome benefited by slimming down as compared to women who had metabolic syndrome and an unchanged waistline. Women who lost an inch or more were nearly four times more likely to no longer have the syndrome by the time the study was over. Men also benefited from weight loss, but the specific effects of a trimmer waist were no longer evident when the researchers factored in changes in body mass index (BMI), a measure of weight in relation to height. Both BMI and waist size are important in the risks of metabolic syndrome, diabetes and heart disease. However, people with normal weight based on BMI but large waists are at a greater risk of metabolic syndrome. Thus, after accounting for changes in BMI, reducing waist by 3 cm or less only had a significant beneficial effect on the metabolic syndrome in women, and increasing waist by 7 cm or more had a detrimental effect in both sexes.