Big Bottoms and thighs for a long life
A study carried out by Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, United States has suggested that people with high level of thigh fat are less likely to be at risk of heart disease, diabetes and stroke, as opposed to men and women with high levels of fat around the waist and upper body. The study highlights the benefits of a pear shaped body.
Similar conclusions were drawn by a Danish study conducted last year. The study included 3000 men and women and it indicated that those who have thigh circumference of 23.6 inches or more have less chance of getting heart disease or diabetes.
In the trial by Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Michael Jensen and colleagues overfed a group comprising both men and women for two months and studied the fat growth in their bodies. The body fat before the trial and after the trial was measured and it was found that an average subject gained 3.3 pounds of lower body fat and 5.5 pounds of upper-body fat.
According to Jensen the findings challenge the belief that the number of fat cells remains static in adults, as the striking finding was that the thigh fat cells grew in number and not in size whereas abdominal fat cells and the heart grew in size and not in number by producing more fat synthesising proteins.
These studies provide support to the idea that increased capacity to produce lower-body fat cells creates a form of buffer or protection to the upper body which houses the vital organs like heart, effectively preventing diseases like diabetes and heart disease.
Drugs that change the way fat is stored around the body could be used to fight cardiovascular and related diseases in the future.
Posted
on Tuesday, October 05, 2010.
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