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April 15, 2005
What is Your Waist Size? It May Indicate your Risk for Developing Diabetes and Related Complications
Waist size is a good indicator of a person's risk of insulin resistance -- an early stage in the development of diabetes and heart disease, researchers said on Friday.
"A waist circumference of less than 100 cm (39 inches) excludes individuals of both sexes from being at risk of being insulin resistant," Hans Wahrenberg, of the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, said in a study reported online by the British Medical Journal.
The Swedish researchers studied 2,746 men and women aged 18 to 72 who had waists ranging from 65-150 cm. They measured their height, weight, waist and hip sizes and took a blood sample to test insulin sensitivity.
They found that waist size was a strong predictor of insulin resistance.
Posted by Diabetologica at April 15, 2005 3:08 PM