Dr. Vikram .R. Lotwala

Your lifespan could be shrinking in proportion to your growing waistline. In the largest-ever investigation of how obesity affects mortality, British scientists have found that seriously obese people die 10 years before they should. Even worse, even moderate obesity has been found to shorten lives by three years. Oxford University researchers reported their finding in Wednesday’s issue of medical journal The Lancet after analyzing the body mass index (BMI) of a million people who had been weighed and measured in 57 separate studies in Europe and North America. People in the study were followed for up to 20 years, during which time 100,000 died. Those with a BMI of 30-35 lost three years while severely obese people with the BMI of 40-50 had reduced life expectancy by about 10 years. Epidemiologist Dr Gary Whitlock, who led the analysis, said, “Excess weight shortens human lifespan. If you are becoming overweight or obese, avoiding further weight gain could well add years to ...

Some of the abdominal fat is located in the fatty tissue just beneath the skin. This subcutaneous fat behaves like the fat elsewhere in the body; it's no friend to health, but it's no special threat either. However, belly or visceral fat, which is located around the internal organs, can damage your health. One way to evaluate body fat is to measure height and weight, then calculate body mass index (BMI). This is now the standard way to diagnose obesity. Another simple method uses the ratio of the waist and hip measurements. But many experts are turning to an even simpler technique: waist circumference. Because it involves one measurement instead of two, it's more accurate and reproducible. And new research suggests that this simple measurement is the best way to tell who is at risk for the serious consequences of obesity. Scientists thought visceral fat was dangerous because it was linked to elevated stress hormones, which raise blood pressure, blood sugar levels and cardia...

Alarmed by reports that India will become the global diabetes capital by 2050, the Health Ministry has reduced the diagnostic cut-offs for body mass index (BMI) to 23 kg/m2 and the standard waist circumference to fight the battle against obesity. The standards have been set for the first time in the Ministry's consensus guidelines for Prevention and Management of Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome for the country, released on Tuesday. The BMI—considered the individual's fitness and obesity indicator—is the ratio of the body weight in kg versus height in m2. The country's new diagnostic cut-off for the body mass index is 23 kg/m2 as opposed to 25 kg/m2 globally. The guidelines were released jointly by the Health Ministry, the Diabetes Foundation of India, the All-India Institute of Medical Science (Aiims), Indian Council of Medical Research, the National Institute of Nutrition and 20 other health organisations. A person with a body mass index of 23 kg/m2 will now be considered o...