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Ever heard of air-conditioning may play a part in your weight gain ?
Birmingham, US - A report published in the International Journal of Obesity which discussed factors of obesity, suggested that the convenience of air-con actually cause the body to burn less calories during a hot day.
As a result, more fats get stored in the body.
However, some doctors do not agree with this finding. Barbara Rolls, an obesity researcher at Penn State University in University Park, US feels that more evidence is required.
"In the end, though, it boils down to what you eat and how much you move. I still don't think we should lose our focus on those variables," she concludes.
Source :
June 2006 - International Journal of Obesity
Featured Article :
Abdominal obesity is harmful
Do not take lightly that extra fat around your waist. It affects your health in more ways than just being an ugly sight.
Poor lung function
A research published in the medical journal, Chest stated there's a relationship between lung function and overall obesity and abdominal adiposity (collection of fats) in 2,153 adults in New York.
In fact, abdominal adiposity was a better predictor of lung function than weight or body mass index (BMI). The research further showed that increasing obesity, in particular abdominal obesity, is inversely related with lung function.
For instance, women with a large waist circumference and abdominal height (base-to-top belly measurement) were more likely to suffer from poor lung function.
Cardiovascular disease
And this is only one of the many detrimental effect. Abdominal fat surrounds organs or visceral fat (stubborn fat within the tissues). This leads to unwanted blood clotting and formation of plague in the blood vessels, thereby putting you at risk of a heart attack or stroke when the plague rupture and block the vessels.
That's why abdominal obesity is one of the culprit in Metabolic Syndrome, an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease.
Metabolic Syndrome is a cluster of conditions comprising of high blood pressure, high blood sugar and lipid abnormalities.
Doctors agree that in the United States, if obesity problem persists, Metabolic Syndrome may soon overtake cigarette smoking as the primary risk factor for cardiovascular disease.
Colon Cancer
Another report in the International Journal of Cancer proved that women with large waists were at higher risk of colon cancer.
In this research, out of the 24,000 women involved in this 10 years research, 212 women were diagnosed with colon cancer during the follow-up sessions.
The researchers found that as the central adiposity (estimated by waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio) rose, so too did the risk of colon cancer.
A possible explanation could be exercise can lower the risk of colon cancer, therefore the lack of it will increase the risk. The researchers also feel that a fat-related hormone called leptin associated with colon cancer could also be the cause.
Although cancer may not cause by dietary fat intake alone,
one thing doctors do agree is that carrying too much fat around
your waist definitely does more harm than good.
