Another reason to avoid refined carbohydrates.
> Where You Put on Pounds May Influence Clot Risk - Big hips in women,
> wide waists in men spell trouble, study finds
> http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_91068.html
> Monday, October 26, 2009
> MONDAY, Oct. 26 (HealthDay News) -- The location of excess body fat
> appears to affect the risk of dangerous blood clots in veins, although
> that location differs in men and women, a new Danish study indicates.
> The 10-year study found that bigger hips are associated with an
> increased risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in women but not men,
> while a wider waistline was associated with increased risk in men,
> according to a report published online Oct. 26 in the journal
> Circulation.
> Obesity in general is an established risk factor for VTE, which occurs
> when a blood clot blocks a vein. When VTE happens in a leg, it is
> known as deep vein thrombosis. In a lung, it is a pulmonary embolism.
> A particularly deadly form of VTE, thromboembolism, occurs when a clot
> travels from a leg to a lung.
> Researchers at Aarhus University Hospital followed more than 57,000
> Danish men and women, aged 50 to 64 when the study started, assessing
> the relationships between body mass, fat distribution and VTE. The
> initial analysis showed that waist circumference was associated with
> VTE risk in both men and women.
> "When hip circumference was adjusted for waist circumference, the
> association between hip circumference and VTE was eliminated for men
> but was still significant for women," the report said. "In contrast,
> when waist circumference was adjusted for hip circumference, the
> association between waist circumference and VTE was eliminated for
> women but was still significant for men."
> "Further studies are needed to explain the associations," they wrote.
> The Danish study results echoes those of an American study reported
> earlier this year, said Lyn Steffen, an associate professor of
> epidemiology at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health,
> and a leader of that study.
> The Minnesota group followed more than 20,000 people for more than 12
> years and found an association between VTE risk and metabolic
> syndrome, a constellation of risk factors including obesity, high
> blood pressure, insulin resistance and high blood cholesterol. A
> heightened risk of VTE was attributed to obesity.
> "The message here is that obesity is a risk factor for venous
> thrombosis," Steffen said. "The effect of obesity in women might be
> the same as in men, but just is not measured in waist circumference."
> It's possible that obesity increases the likelihood of developing
> blood clots, and it also might have a negative effect on the
> endothelium, the delicate lining of blood vessels, Steffen said.
> "There is information that obesity contributes to inflammation, and it
> is associated with the metabolic syndrome, which predisposes to
> stroke," said Dr. Amytis Towfighi, an assistant professor of clinical
> neurology at the University of Southern California. "There may be
> similar effects in thrombotic disease, as well as mechanisms that are
> not well understood at this point."
> SOURCES: Lyn Steffen, Ph.D, associate professor, epidemiology,
> University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Minneapolis; Amytis
> Towfighi, M.D., assistant professor, clinical neurology, University of
> Southern California, Los Angeles; Oct. 26, 2009, Circulation, online
³When you give food to the poor, they call you a saint. When you ask why the poor have no food, they call you a communist.²
