Reducing Body Fat Reduces Disease Risk
By Chad Tackett, president of GHF
The good news is that reducing body fat reduces the risk
of disease. At the University of Pittsburgh, researchers studied 159
people as they followed a weight management program. The subjects were
under age 45 and 30-70 pounds overweight. Those subjects who were able
to shed just 10-15 percent of their weight and keep it off during the
18-month study showed significant improvement in HDL cholesterol and
triglyceride levels, waist-to-hip ratio, and blood pressure. In fact,
according to the New England Journal of Medicine, body fat reduction
is a more powerful modulator of cardiac structure than drug therapy.
For people with a family history of heart disease, an active
lifestyle can slow or stop the process for all but those with serious
genetic disorders. Studies by Dean Ornish, MD, have shown that a comprehensive
intervention program that includes regular physical activity, a low-fat
diet and a stress reduction program can even reverse the heart disease
process.
Evidence also shows that an active lifestyle and its help
in reducing body fat is associated with a reduced risk for some types
of cancers: prostate for men, breast and uterine cancers for women.
(Frisch, et al 1985)
In addition, regular physical activity and a low-fat diet
are successful in treating non-insulin dependent diabetes (NIDDM); for
some patients, it has reduced or eliminated the need for insulin substitutes.
In general, regularly active adults have 42 percent lower risk of developing
NIDDM.
This article was provided by Chad
Tackett, president of GHF.
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