Slim Fast : Weight Management E-newsletter

Vol. 2, No 2, April 2007

Big belly, greater heart disease risk

When measuring obesity, there is BMI and now Sagittal Abdominal Diameter.

SAD measures the distance from the back to the upper abdomen midway between the top of the pelvis and the bottom of the ribs. A study concludes that the greater the SAD, the greater the risk of heart disease. Researchers at Kaiser Permanente of Northern California in Oakland looked at 101,765 men and women who underwent checkups, including SAD measurements, from 1965 to 1970. They were followed for about 12 years. The results? Men with the largest SAD number were 42% more likely to develop heart disease than men with smaller SAD numbers.

Source:
Reuters Health (December 26, 2006)

Women with a larger SAD were also 44% more likely to develop heart disease than women with smaller SAD numbers.


	Lose weight, lower risk of prostate cancer
			Overweight men are at risk of getting more aggressive forms of prostate cancer than normal weight men. Studies find, however, that overweight men who lost 11 pounds or more were 42% less likely to develop that form of prostate cancer than men whose weight remained the same. This is according to researchers from the American Cancer Society and the Duke University Prostate Cancer. Results were published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention (December 2006). The study is the first of its kind to examine the role of weight change in the development of prostate cancer.
	Source: Associated Press (December 27, 2006)

When women gain weight affects risk of breast cancer

The International Journal of Cancer (December 15, 2006) reported that there may be a correlation between when a woman gains weight in adulthood and her risk of breast cancer after menopause. Researchers at Morehead State University in Kentucky looked at 1,166 women with breast cancer and 2,105 without. They noticed a nearly 70% increased risk of breast cancer among postmenopausal women who gained more than 60 pounds between age 20 and menopause, compared with women who gained less than 20 pounds.

Source:
Reuters Health (December 27, 2006)