Preventing Early Heart Disease:
Inches Trump Pounds

The humble tape measure may be your best tool to find out if you are at risk for heart disease.

Whether you have a love or hate relationship with your bathroom scale is not as important as the size of your waistline.

A team of researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center report in the Journal of American College of Cardiology a newly begun long-term study, led by cardiologist, Dr. James de Lemos, is already providing important insights into the risks of early heart disease.

Study participants, with a median age of 45 and no history of stroke or heart attack, were scanned for early signs of clogged arteries using sophisticated MRI and CT imaging. After accounting for hypertension, high cholesterol and other known heart factors, the team found that weight alone was not the sole predictor of a person's chances of having early heart disease.

However, waist size did. Regardless of the participants' overall weight, there appears to be a direct correlation between waist size and early indications of heart disease. The smaller a person's waist size the clearer the arteries were observed to be.

Previous studies have shown definitive links between waist size and incidence of stroke, heart attack. This new study shows that the earliest stages of heart disease can be directly linked to inches and not pounds alone. U.S. government guidelines suggest that women should have a waist circumferance of 35 inches or less -- 40 inches for men.

Dr. de Lemos advises that it is important for everyone, even young adults, to be conscientious about maintaining a healthy shape throughout life.