Belly fat According to the Division of Public Health and Primary Health Care in Oxford, 21% of women in the UK are classified obese, which is defined as a body mass index of more than 30 and, while it’s been common knowledge that obesity is linked to increased risk of various illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease, it was thought that overweight women were actually at reduced risk of osteoporosis – bone loss.
Researchers at Harvard Medical School in Boston, US, gave 50 women with an average BMI of 30 a magnetic-resonance spectroscopy examination, which allowed them to check bone marrow fat in a part of the spine. They then checked bone density of the same part of the spine. What they found was that those women who had more abdominal fat also had more bone marrow fat as well as less bone mineral density. When they checked the data to see if excess fat elsewhere on the body had the same effect, they found no link. Being fat in the abdominal area appears to be the risk factor.
First published December 8, 2010