« Coverage of Pope Bests Articles on Bush | Main | The Value of Human Life and Terri Schiavo's Death »

Belly fat good predictor of diabetes in men

Studies claiming to investigate a new predictor promising diagnostic capabilities are frequently funded. The latest, which is really nothing new, seeks to determine diabetes risk on the basis of a patient's BMI:

Overall obesity, measured by high body mass index (BMI) – the height-to-weight ratio, and abdominal obesity, measured by a large waist circumference, each strongly and independently predict the risk of type 2 diabetes in men, but abdominal obesity appears to be the better predictor, new research shows.

"Both BMI and waist circumference are useful for assessing health risk and should be measured in clinical settings...whenever possible," the investigators say. But abdominal fat measured by waist circumference "can indicate a strong risk for diabetes whether or not a man is considered overweight or obese according to his BMI," lead author Dr Youfa Wang added in a statement.

While obesity factors are useful for assessing health risk, I wonder whether body fat content increases diabetes risk, as this study implies, or if a person's insulin resistance leads to a greater adiposity. The two are definetly related, but the cited study does not provide the necessary evidence that obesity causes diabetes.

Posted by tim at April 4, 2005 10:37 PM

Articles Related to Diabetes:

Research Breakthrough Links Diabetes and Obesity - Apr 12, 2005
Coffee, Caffeine and Diabetes - Jul 26, 2004
Coffee Reduces Diabetes Risk - Apr 16, 2004

Comments

BMI is a joke. It's a best-guess upper limit of body fat percentage. People are far better off using tools that measures body fat percentage. For instance, there are scales that send small currents through your body and measure how resistive you are. Fat and muscle have different conductive properties, so the scale can calcualte body fat percentage based on how resistive you are. If you get a good scale, the measurement is pretty accurate. Calipers are still more accurate, though. BMI is for people too lazy to get their body fat measured for real.

Posted by: Funky Dung at April 5, 2005 6:44 AM