A new study found that both men and women with larger waist circumferences were more likely to die early, even if they had a healthy body mass index (BMI).
The study found males and females with larger waist circumferences were more likely to pass away from "heart disease, respiratory problems, and cancer" even when other risk factors were taken into account such as physical activity, smoking, and alcohol consumption, a Mayo Clinic news release reported.
To make their findings the researchers looked at 11 different cohort studies that encompassed more than 600,000 people from around the globe.
The researchers found that men with a waist circumference of 43 inches or greater had a 50 percent higher mortality risk than those with a waist less than 35 inches. Having a larger waist was predicted to shorten life expectancy by three years after the age of 40. Women with a waist circumference of 37 inches or greater had a whopping 80 percent higher mortality risk than women with a waist under 28 inches, this shortened life expectancy by five years after the age of 40.
For every two inches of additional waist circumference mortality went up about seven percent in men and nine percent in women. This finding remained true regardless of the patient's BMI.
"BMI is not a perfect measure," James Cerhan, M.D., Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic epidemiologist and lead author of the study said in the news release. "It doesn't discriminate lean mass from fat mass, and it also doesn't say anything about where your weight is located. We worry about that because extra fat in your belly has a metabolic profile that is associated with diseases such as diabetes and heart disease."
"The primary goal should be preventing both a high BMI and a large waist circumference," Dr. Cerhan said. "For those patients who have a large waist, trimming down even a few inches - through exercise and diet - could have important health benefits."
