Women with added belly fat at higher risk for stroke

After observing in 2007 that stroke prevalence among women aged 45 to 54 was twice that of men, researchers at the UCLA Medical Center followed up on their study to find out why.

They evaluated medical histories and biomarker data from a total of 9,706 women and men aged 35 to 54 who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys in 1988 to 1994 and from 1999 to 2004.

The analysis, published in Stroke, revealed that rising abdominal obesity along with changes in hormone levels are the likely cause of the increase of stroke among women. The percentage of women with a waist circumference greater than 34.6 inches, or 88 cm, increased from 47 percent to 59 percent between the two survey periods.

Citations:

Towfighi A, Zheng L, Ovbiagele B. Weight of the obesity epidemic: rising stroke rates among middle-aged women in the United States. Stroke. 2010 Jul;41(7):1371-5.

Towfighi A, Saver JL, Engelhardt R, Ovbiagele B. A midlife stroke surge among women in the United States.Neurology. 2007 Nov 13;69(20):1894-5.