This is the only measure that should matter to you

• Why you should worry (and much) have a beer gut

Until recently everything revolved around the body mass index (BMI). Tell me what your body mass index is and I will tell you if you are screwed in kilos , if you are in the bones or if you look like an enviable tip, the massacres promised us. That, and also that with just that data they could predict whether we would fall into the grip of hypertension, diabetes, heart disease or stroke.

The measure "oracle" is obtained by dividing weight in kilograms by the square of height. The ideal? Well, for an adult there is no need to worry as long as the ratio does not fall below 18.5 (underweight) or rise above 24.9 (overweight and obesity) .

But lately his leading role is pending a thread. Endocrines and doctors of all kinds have set their eyes on another measure that, it seems, refines much more when it comes to predicting health risks. And they have replaced the scale with a flexible measuring tape to calculate the waist circumference (CC). Convinced that it is the size of the "michelín" or, what is the same, the amount of fat deposited around the gut, which dictates how healthy your heart and brain go, and if diabetes stalks.

Reasons to make the exchange are not lacking. Although accumulating more fat from the account is harmful, not all fats are the same. On one side we have the so-called peripheral fat , located in buttocks, thighs and arms, unsightly for modern but relatively harmless beauty canons. Quite the opposite of central or visceral fat, that is, excess sebum concentrated in the abdomen.

Peripheral fat draws a pear-shaped body, fleshy and plump, but barely threatening. However, "if you have an apple-shaped body, your health is in serious danger, " says Brent Muhlestein, a researcher at the Intermountain Medical Center (USA).

In a study conducted three years ago, Muhlestein and his colleagues concluded that an excessively dilated waist circumference makes us an easy target of hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol and coronary artery disease (CAD) , name given in medical jargon to the leading cause of death from non-infectious diseases. With the aggravating factor that it can also lead to errors in the functioning of the left ventricle, the main risk factor for sudden death. Although the scale does not of the slightest alarm signal.

ANTIDOTE

So when to worry? The WHO dictates that you should start to have the fly behind the ear and start losing weight when your waist circumference measures more than 80 centimeters if you are female, or 94 centimeters if you are male . The thing is aggravated above 88 and 102 centimeters respectively, which is when chronic and metabolic diseases are primed with us.

If we do not set foot on the wall in time and let our perimeter increase up to 93 centimeters (them) and 109 centimeters (them), the risk of mortality increases between 50 and 80% , according to calculations of the renowned Mayo Clinic (USA) ) based on 650,000 patients. Which also estimates that, neglecting the waist circumference to this extreme, we subtract five years from our life expectancy.

To make matters worse, it seems that flab you are very attractive to cancer. Every 11 centimeters of "extra" waist circumference increases by a 13% risk of tumors. Among them breast, intestine and pancreatic.

The thing does not end there. Earlier this year, a study published in the journal Neurology revealed that the same form of apple can reduce brain size . Although the reasons are still unknown, everything indicates that if they are overweight simultaneously and a circumference of the last waist of thread the volume of gray matter is reduced.

The good news is that there is an antidote: get up from the couch . Staying in good shape drastically narrows the diameter of the abdomen, while reducing inflammation, which is the germ of many chronic diseases. Although running or swimming works, dedicating 20 minutes a day to lifting weights is twice as effective if you intend to get rid of lorzas , as a US study at the Harvard School of Public Health recently demonstrated.

That and sleep just. Because it turns out that there is irrefutable evidence that resting less than six hours or ironing the ear more than ten consecutive hours a day also has a negative impact on the waist circumference . In a matter of sleep, it is clear how bad it is to pass as not to arrive.

Separate the fats

Drop down

The Body Mass Index (BMI) has an important weakness: it does not distinguish between bones, muscles and fat. That is why he often classifies fibrous athletes without an apex of fat in his body as obese. Or he makes a mistake by describing as "healthy" the weight of a plump old man whose decalcified bones have become light.

The index that could replace it in the future is the Relative Mass Index (RFM), which takes into account both waist circumference and height. The formula is quite simple. In men, the product of multiplying the height by twenty must be subtracted from 64 and divided by the waist circumference. In women, the same is subtracted from 76. The inventors of the equation, from the Cerdars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles (USA), say that there is still a lot of work to be done before clarifying what percentages are considered normal.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

• Health
• Graphics

Well-beingThe incredible Spanish 'world record' that overcame double amputation and beat cancer twice

Society At least eight retirees of the Barcelona metro, possible affected by asbestos

HealthThe mother courage who created a network against the most lethal childhood brain tumor