Waist, hip size can predict diseases — study

Don’t ignore those body fats around your abdomen. Your life could depend on it.

The Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) said yesterday that the size of a person’s waist and hip can predict his or her risk to heart attacks and other diseases such as diabetes and abnormalities in metabolism.

Citing a study conducted by Dr. Rodolfo Florentino, chairman of the Nutrition Foundation of the Philippines (NFP), the FNRI said waist circumference can predict the risk of diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

The NFP study took off from similar studies in 2003 and 2004.

Florentino said the waist-hip ratio (WHR) has the strongest correlation to cardiovascular disease and the strongest predictor of risks to heart attack.

The WHR is determined by dividing the waist circumference (in centimeters) over hip circumference (in centimeters). A waist-hip ratio greater than or equal to 1.0 for males and greater than or equal to 0.85 for females are at risk to android obesity.

Moreover, a waist circumference greater than or equal to 80 centimeters or about 31 inches for females and greater than or equal to 90 centimeters or 35 inches for males is considered obese.

The Interheart study thus recommended cut-offs in waist and hip measurements.

The FNRI revealed that over one billion people worldwide are overweight and more than 300 million are clinically obese.

Data from the 2003 National Nutrition Health Survey revealed that 18 out of 100 Filipino females (18.3 percent) and three out of 100 (three percent) males are considered android obese based on waist circumference while 55 out of 100 females and 12 out of 100 males are obese based on WHR.

The FNRI said waist and hip measurements are now being recommended to health professionals as assessment tools for android obesity or "apple-shaped" obesity.

Android obesity is the accumulation of body fats around the abdomen. Fat deposits within and around the organs in the abdominal area make one vulnerable to several lifestyle-related diseases such as diabetes, heart attack and metabolic syndrome.

Studies showed that the accumulation of excessive adipose tissue contributes to the complex mechanism of the elevation of glucose, insulin, cortisol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglyceride levels, which the FNRI said might trigger diabetes, hypertension, heart attack and other related diseases.

The studies also revealed several diseases related to obesity, including increased all-cause mortality, arthritis, osteoarthritis, gout, decreased pulmonary function, sleep apnea, hypoxemia or lack of oxygen, hypercapnia (which is characterized by fast and shallow breathing), breast, cervical and ovarian cancer among women and colorectal or prostate cancer among men.

Florentino, who is also the scientific director of the International Life Sciences Institute in South East Asia (ILSI-SEA), presented these studies during the 4th Asian Congress of Dietetics last April 23 to 26.

The survey was conducted by the FNRI, which is under the Department of Science and Technology, in collaboration with the Department of Health and 14 medical specialty societies.