Having a large amount of abdominal fat poses many health risks, including raising your risk of stroke and heart attack.
Where you carry extra pounds on your body may determine some health risks. While all extra weight poses potential health problems, some types of fat in different places on the body can pose bigger and more serious problems. People who carry most of their extra weight around their waist and in the abdominal area are more likely to have a life ending or life changing stroke. This means losing weight is even more important for such individuals and should be a priority for the sake of a longer life.
Those that have extra weight in the stomach and have a family history of stroke should pay close attention to their weight loss goals. Without taking the time to lose as much as they can, they are putting themselves at high risk to have a stroke. These are usually something that you associate with old age, but that is not always the case. People can have strokes in there forties, thirties, and even twenties if they are in poor health. If this is you, do what you can to lose weight. Do not forget to add motion to your routine, as exercise can not only help you lose weight, it can help lower your chances for stroke as well.
Some use the BMI (body mass index) to determine if someone is obese or overweight, and this also can indicate risk for stroke and heart attack. However, recent findings have suggested that the ratio of the stomach fat to the rest of the body is a more accurate indication of stroke risk. That means someone with an apple figure – rather than a pear shape – is at a much higher risk to have a stroke due to excess body fat. BMI, along with risk factors like smoking and inactivity, can tell if someone is at risk, but the waist line is a better indication to go by.
Not only does a larger waist line signal higher stroke risk, it also signals higher cardiovascular health problems. This could include all types of heart disease. Those who are considered obese or overweight (up to 66% if the US population at this point) should pay attention to waist size and dieting. No matter what your risk, being overweight is not good for the body. Losing just ten percent of the body weight will greatly improve health and lower the chances of having a deadly stroke or heart attack in the future. Add another ten percent and your odds are even better.
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