Can Waist Size Predict Heart Disease?
For years, women have been told that weight gain could lead to heart disease. A new study indicates that it is the location of the fat that matters most, with abdominal fat representing the greatest harm and not overall body mass index (BMI) when assessing risk for coronary artery disease (CAD). Results are published online today in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS).
Because CAD remains the leading cause of death worldwide, there is tremendous attention given to its modifiable risk factors. Estrogen protects women’s cardiovascular systems before menopause, which helps explain why the incidence of CAD in premenopausal women is lower than in men. However, as women’s estrogen levels decline during and after menopause, the incidence of CAD in postmenopausal women outpaces similarly aged men.
Excerpted from Science Daily
