Pear, or apple?
No, those aren’t your dessert choices. Rather, they are how the medical profession informally describes body types, more specifically where we carry our fat.
You apples tend to get heavy around your middle, your belly. You pears tend to carry in around your hips. Pears are most often women.
So what’s that all mean for your cardiac health, and your cholesterol? Well, in this case, the pears win, because there’s evidence that people with belly fat tend to be more prone to high triglycerides and LDL cholesterol, and at the same time have low readings for the good stuff, HDL cholesterol.
Indeed, there’s evidence that the pear-shaped among us can actually benefit from extra padding in that area. That’s because fat around your hips tends to trap harmful fatty acids, protecting the pears from some of the harmful health impact of belly fat where fatty acids are free to roam.
That’s the good news for the pears. The bad news is that, unlike the fruit on a tree, the pears can turn into apples eventually. That exposes women to the same range of body-fat related diseases as men.
That can happen about the same time a woman goes through menopause, when they can typically develop the same body fat issues as men.
In addition to cholesterol and triglyceride issues, other dangers the apples face are diabetes, coronary artery disease, stroke and unusually high uric acid levels in the blood.
So what are the odds of developing coronary artery disease once the fat settles around your middle? One study showed men with big bellies have a 55 percent greater chance, and women in that shape have a 91 percent greater chance than those without excess fat in that area.
Your doctor can help you determine whether you’re at risk by a simple measurement to determine a waist-hip ratio.
So what should you do to head off trouble and heart disease? Here are a few tips that might help:
- Lose weight by controlling your caloric intake and getting more exercise. You should aim to get 30 minutes of exercise each day.
- Stop smoking.
- Keep your blood pressure under control.
- Make sure you follow your doctor’s instructions to control other conditions, like diabetes.
With all that, the frequently repeated advice from doctors still stands: more exercise, less food. Controlling how much you eat is still the best way to good health.
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