VOA标准英语2010年-Larger Waist Associated With Greater R

As the rate of obesity¹ in many countries continues to rise, health officials worry about the expanding waistlines of their citizens.

And it turns out there's reason to worry. New research suggests the size of your waist can predict your chance of death. 

Eric Jacobs and his colleagues from the American Cancer Society asked about  a 100,000 older Americans - men and women, rich and poor, smokers² and non-smokers - to measure their waistlines intermittently³ over a nine-year period.

Jacobs says there's something about the fat that gathers near the waist that makes it particularly harmful.

"We know that deep abdominal⁴ fat has been linked with higher blood levels of cholesterol⁵ and insulin," he says. "Also inflammation-related proteins that have been linked to cardiovascular disease."

During the nine years they followed their subjects, 9,300 of the men and 5,300 of the women died.  Jacobs and his colleagues reviewed the information they had about them: their weight, height and their waist size.

"And what we saw was that the bigger the waist size, the greater the risk of death," Jacobs says. "In fact, those with the very biggest waist sizes had about twice the risk of dying as those with the smallest waists."

Jacobs says the deaths were from all causes, not just cancer, or heart disease or lung disease. Simply having a larger waist made it more probable that someone would die sooner. And in Jacobs' analysis, it turns out it didn't matter how much people weighed, either, only their waist size mattered.

"For example, among women with weights that were considered normal for their height, the risk of dying increased about 25 percent for each additional 4 inches (10 cm) of waist size," Jacobs says.

He explains someone who's sedentary and someone who's active could weigh the same, but the person who didn't do much exercise would probably have more abdominal fat. The active person's weight might come more from muscle which is denser⁶ than fat  - so, it adds weight without adding inches.

"So even if your weight is considered normal for your height, even if you haven't noticed a big weight gain, if your waist size is starting to increase, if you are having to move into a bigger pants size, that's a signal that you need to start eating better and exercising more," Jacobs says.

And he says there's really no short cut.  There's no proven method to lose so-called 'belly⁷ fat.'  Diet and exercise are really the only ways to shrink waist size.

His article is published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

1 obesity   

n.肥胖，肥大

参考例句：

• One effect of overeating may be obesity.吃得过多能导致肥胖。
• Sugar and fat can more easily lead to obesity than some other foods.糖和脂肪比其他食物更容易导致肥胖。

2 smokers   

吸烟者( smoker的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Many smokers who are chemically addicted to nicotine cannot cut down easily. 许多有尼古丁瘾的抽烟人不容易把烟戒掉。
• Chain smokers don't care about the dangers of smoking. 烟鬼似乎不在乎吸烟带来的种种危害。

3 intermittently   

adv.间歇地；断断续续

参考例句：

• Winston could not intermittently remember why the pain was happening. 温斯顿只能断断续续地记得为什么这么痛。 来自英汉文学
• The resin moves intermittently down and out of the bed. 树脂周期地向下移动和移出床层。 来自辞典例句

4 abdominal   

adj.腹（部）的，下腹的；n.腹肌

参考例句：

• The abdominal aorta is normally smaller than the thoracic aorta.腹主动脉一般比胸主动脉小。
• Abdominal tissues sometimes adhere after an operation.手术之后腹部有时会出现粘连。

5 cholesterol   

n.（U）胆固醇

参考例句：

• There is cholesterol in the cell of body.人体细胞里有胆固醇。
• They are determining the serum-protein and cholesterol levels.他们正在测定血清蛋白和胆固醇的浓度。

6 denser   

adj. 不易看透的, 密集的, 浓厚的, 愚钝的

参考例句：

• The denser population necessitates closer consolidation both for internal and external action. 住得日益稠密的居民，对内和对外都不得不更紧密地团结起来。 来自英汉非文学 - 家庭、私有制和国家的起源
• As Tito entered the neighbourhood of San Martino, he found the throng rather denser. 蒂托走近圣马丁教堂附近一带时，发现人群相当密集。

7 belly   

n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛

参考例句：

• The boss has a large belly.老板大腹便便。
• His eyes are bigger than his belly.他眼馋肚饱。