What's Your Waist Telling You?

Suppose you went for a checkup, but your doctor had time to take only one measurement to most accurately assess your overall health.

What do you think she would do? She would measure your waist size.

This could be your most important vital sign. Recent research shows that waist size is one of the most controllable risk factors of heart attack. As we get older, we tend to accumulate more abdominal fat around the middle. Excess abdominal fat is just the tip of the iceberg though. The more fat that shows around the waistline, the more likely it is that excess fat is being stored inside the abdomen.

Visceral fat, or “middle fat,” releases health-harming chemicals into the bloodstream that cause premature aging and increase your risk of: Increased Highs (Cholesterol, Blood Sugar, Blood Pressure) Increased Lows (Depression) A Weak Heart. Lower Testosterone (for males) Higher Estrogen (for females) Cancer “-Itises” (Colitis, Dermatitis, Arthritis). You want to strive for balance. Strive for an average number. Women, keep your waist measurement under thirty-five inches; men, under forty inches.