Tag Archives: body mass index

Introduction The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines obesity as “abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that may impair health” and classifies obesity based on body mass index (BMI), with those with a BMI of 25–30 kg/m2 termed as overweight and those with BMI over 30 kg/m2 defined as obese.1,2 Obesity has reached pandemic levels in the last 50 years.3 One and a half billion people over the age of 20 in the world are thought to be overweight or obese.4 Obesity is associated with low-grade chronic inflammation leading to insulin resistance, which may progress to diabetes mellitus.5 Moreover, fatty liver disease, systemic hypertension

The study, published in the September issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Am J Clin Nutr 2009;90:499-504), was conducted by US researchers led by Dr Jingzhong Ding (Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, US). They conducted a case-cohort study in 998 individuals taking part in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), who had no history of cardiovascular disease. The volume of pericardial fat was measured using cardiac CT scans performed at baseline in the MESA trial. Of the 998 individuals, 26 developed coronary heart disease during the five year follow-up. In unadjusted analyses,

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