Fat Neck: Indicator For Heart Risks

The most successful health insurance companies have been promoting the benefits of good health for several years now and one of the main factors that they concentrate on is the body weight to height ratio. They encourage people to eat well and exercise so that they maintain a healthy weight.

It has been known for quite some time now that a larger waist size is linked to higher levels of harmful internal fat which is linked to heart attacks. Recent evidence published this weeks suggests that neck size is also now an indicator.

The Framingham Heart Study presented their research to the American Heart Association. They used 3,300 men and women whose average age was 51. The average neck for a man was 40.5cm and that of a woman was 34.2cm and they found that risk of heart problems increased as neck size increased.

Risk of heart problems is measured by the levels of cholesterol in the blood. There are good cholesterols which help reduce your risk and bad cholesterols which increase it. The study found that having a larger neck meant that you were more likely to have less of the good cholesterol. Good cholesterol helps to remove lipids (fats) from cells and transport them to the liver where they can be broken down and eliminated from the body.

The research team thought that a fat neck could a 'crude measure' of upper body fat which is associated with heart risks. They also discovered that neck size was more indicative of good cholesterol levels than waist measurement.

Professor Bell from the team said that, 'What you don't want is fat around your liver or heart, and this can happen even if you look fine on the outside. Dieting isn't what you need to shift this - it's exercise.'