How Fat Distribution Affects Your Health Risk
QHHL 
Feb 14 2019
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0 QHHL
Losing weight is one of the most important things you can do to lower your health risk. However, if you also want to lower your risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer, you need to know about the risks of where your body stores excess weight.
Most people know by now that excess weight is bad for your health. It’s been linked with inflammation and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, and serious health risk factors. However, you might not know that your body doesn’t store fat evenly. The distribution of fat is determined by several factors and most of them aren’t in your control. And this health risk factor could make all the difference in your health assessments and your long-term wellbeing.
Obesity is an obvious health risk. However, just your weight alone may not be an accurate measurement of the extent of that risk. And that’s due to the importance of fat distribution. There are several factors that determine where your body stores fat. Most of these factors aren’t in under your control either, especially as you age. The most important factors in fat distribution are:
This information has important implications for your health. And this is made even more important by new information about the connection between body fat distribution and certain diseases.
It’s commonly known that people who store more fat around their waist are at higher risk of cardiovascular disease. But now, the real extent of this health risk is coming to light. A recent study has found that this higher risk may be linked to the waist-stature ratio. This is a measurement of waist circumference divided by height.
In a study on physically active men who weren’t overweight, this measurement was used to calculate health risk. And the study found that participants who were close to the risk threshold in this measurement were more likely to develop cardiovascular disease than people with lower measurements. The participants had no history of metabolic disorders or cardiovascular disease. So these health risk factors could not have influenced the data.
But a high waist circumference can do more than put you at risk of cardiovascular disease. It may also be an important measurement in cancer prevention. Research suggests that waist circumference may be one of the most important health risk factors for cancer. And this includes several types of cancer such as colon, hematological and endometrial cancers. In fact, storing fat around your waist may actually be more dangerous than having a high BMI but storing the fat more evenly.
It isn’t clear why waist circumference is an important health risk for cancer. However, researchers suggest that it may indicate that waist circumference is a better measurement of stored fat than BMI. That is, a higher waist measurement may more accurately indicate higher levels of stored fat. And these types of fat stores have a very negative impact on your body. They’re linked to problems with blood sugar levels, inflammation regulation, and hormonal levels. And all of these problems are known health risk factors for several diseases and disorders.
Whatever the reason, it’s becoming ever clearer that waist measurement should be an integral part of cancer prevention efforts.
This research has important implications for your long-term health. Even if the nature of the link between your waist circumference and disease development isn’t clear, it’s still a powerful tool for prognostics. This means that you can use it to evaluate your health in the present and in the long term. And it’s a simple health measurement to take too. All you need is a measuring tape.
There are other ways to measure your waist circumference as well. You can buy special scales with a built-in body shape analysis for starters. And soon, there will be body video analysis programs available which will use artificial intelligence. This technological advance will be an important step in cardiovascular disease and cancer prevention.
With this measurement, it’s important that you don’t just measure it once and forget about it. By keeping track of your waist measurement changes over time you can identify signs of a oncoming problem. And you can also use it to measure just how well you’re doing in your efforts to avoid these serious diseases.
If you’re concerned about a health risk, try using HomeLab to keep track of your condition and any preventative measures you take. And if you see signs of a significant problem, you should check with your doctor as soon as possible.
Tags: health risk, cancer prevention, cardiovascular disease