Belly fat increases gall bladder risk in women

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Article From Today's Compuserve News Desk:

Entitled: Bet You Didn't Know This About Belly Fat

Women: No matter how much you weigh, those rolls of belly fat increase the

likelihood you will have to undergo gallbladder surgery. And women who have the

largest waist circumferences run twice the risk of surgery, compared with

women who have the smallest waists, reports Reuters Health of new research from

the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington.

Led by Dr. C-J Tsai, the research team analyzed data on 42,312 women who

participated in the long-running Nurses' Health Study. All were between the ages

of 39 and 66 and did not have gallstone disease at the start of the study in

1986. When the women enrolled in the study, their waist and hip measurements

were recorded.

Fast forward to the year 2000. By then 3,127 of the study participants had

had their gallbladders removed due to gallstones, reports Reuters Health. After

the researchers adjusted for risk factors for gallbladder disease, they

determined that women whose waist circumference was greater than 36 inches were

96

percent more likely to undergo gallbladder surgery than were women whose waists

measured less than 26 inches. Waist-to-hip ratio was directly associated with

risk no matter the overall body mass index. For example, those with a ratio

of 0.86 or greater had a 39 percent higher risk of gallbladder removal than

women with a ratio of 0.70 or less. The study findings were reported in the

medical journal Gut.