Some how I’m not surprised that researchers now believe having a ‘Fat neck’ is as much a risk factor for heart disease as an excessive waist line. I mean how many obese people with a large abdominal girth do you see with thin necks!!
Researchers from the Framingham Heart Study found even those with relatively trim waistlines appeared to be at greater risk if they had larger necks.
Risk was defined as having lower levels of “good” cholesterol for instance, or higher levels of blood glucose.
The results were presented to a meeting of the American Heart Association.
The US team looked at more than 3,300 women and men with an average age of 51.
Professor Jimmy Bell of the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre said research was starting to uncover ever more evidence that health depended not on how fat a person was, but where their fat was located.
In this study, average neck circumferences were 40.5cm for men and 34.2cm for women.
As neck circumference grew, so did risk factors.
For every nearly-3cm more of neck, men had 2.2 milligrams of less good cholesterol per decilitre of blood (mg/dl) and women 2.7mg/dl.
Good cholesterol – or high-density lipoprotein (HDL) – takes cholesterol away from the cells and back to the liver, where it is broken down.
Having lower than 40mg/dl if you are a man, and 50 mg/dl if you are a woman is thought to put you at higher risk of heart disease.
Neck size made no difference to levels of bad cholesterol – or low density lipoprotein (LDL) – which can cause harm, but it did affect blood glucose levels – for every 3cm more of neck men had 3.0mg/dl more and women 2.1mg/dl.
So there you have it. You have been warned. Having a Fat neck may mean an increased risk of having a heart attack.
A reminder about your waist line: if it’s more than 90cm (35.4 inches) for men and more than 80cm (31.5 inches) for women, that is considered obese (from the Malaysians are getting fat post)
Recently the Health Minister confirmed that Malaysians are still getting fatter
Malaysians are growing fatter and are suffering from increased rates of obesity related diseases such as high blood pressure, the health minister revealed in parliament today.
The percentage of Malaysians aged 30 and above that suffer from high blood pressure increased from 33 per cent in 1996 to 43 per cent in 2006. The percentage of Malaysians classified as obese tripled during the same period from 4.4 per cent to fourteen per cent.
About seventeen per cent were considered overweight in 1996, well below the 29.1 per cent in 2006.
from the Malaysian Medical Resources
Fat necks: another clue to heart disease
