Bigger your waistline, greater the strain on your lungs

 There's more bad news for people who carry oodles of fat around their waists: Not only is it associated with diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease and but also with decreased lung function. "After adjustments in the study for age, sex, BMI, smoking status, alcohol consumption, leisure time physical activity and cardiovascular history, metabolic syndrome remained independently associated with lung function impairment," wrote co-author Natalie Leone, of the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research (FNIHMR). "We found a positive independent relationship between lung function impairment and metabolic syndrome due mainly to abdominal obesity," she said. The results were published in the second issue for March of the American
Thoracic Society's
American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
— IANS

Now here's another good reason to slim down!