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Researchers say worsening middle-age spread in Hong Kong men carries far more risks than is widely understood

Big bellies are bad news for an increasing number of Hong Kong men - but just how bad was made clearer yesterday as new local research warned of inflamed blood vessels and collapsing internal  organs.

According to  a study carried out by researcher Peter Tong Chun-yip, many men traditionally ignore the problem, at their peril.

'Fat in the abdomen is particularly dangerous because it generates proteins - called chronic inflammatory markers, or hs-CRP for short - which can cause inflammation of the blood vessels, affect kidney function and reduce the effectiveness of insulin,' Professor Tong told a Hong Kong Association for the Study of Obesity press conference  at the Prince of Wales Hospital yesterday.

Between 1997 and 2000, the clinical and metabolic profiles of 290 men aged between 35 and 60 were taken, which included measuring their body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, waist-hip ratio, blood pressure and cholesterol level.

Study participants were all volunteers in a community health study and were not intended to be a representative sample.

The results, released yesterday, showed that 193 were obese judging by their BMI, waist-hip ratio or waist circumference, and nearly 85 per cent of the obese men had central obesity, defined by having a waist-hip ratio of more or equal to 0.9, or waist circumference of 90cm or more.

'The accumulation of abdominal fat is due to a number of factors such as genetic make-up, hormonal changes, lifestyles and work stress,' Professor Tong said.

'Men are at higher risk than women because they often overlook their health and don't seek medical advice.

'The average measurement of hs-CRP in the 193 obese men we looked at was found to be over 80 per cent higher than their non-obese counterparts.'

Beside displaying higher levels of hs-CRP, the obese men were also found to have an average of 15 per cent lower testosterone levels.

Both these have been shown in other studies to predict diabetes and heart disease.

Comparisons of obese and non-obese people were last carried out in 1990 and 1995, when 1,500 and 3,000 people were tested, respectively. The previous comparison represented the whole population, whereas the recent study only looked at men who volunteered from the community health screening programme.

'Most of them were from the working class. Our results show that obesity is definitely a common problem amongst these people,' Professor Tong said.

Research shows that fat in the abdomen seems to be a particular problem in cultures where the shift from hard physical labour, such as farming and fishing, to sedentary office or service jobs is relatively recent. Obesity has become a global epidemic and the prevalence is rapidly increasing in Asia.

'Both the direct and indirect costs of managing obesity are enormous and pose a serious financial burden to public health care resources,' association president  Francis Chow said.

Manu Melwani, of Sam's Tailor, said the most common waist measurement now was 96cm.

When he started in the business in Hong Kong 21 years ago, the average was around 86cm. But waist sizes had stayed about the same in recent years, he believed.

'People are going to the gym more.'

He added that men aged 30 or below normally had about 86-cm  waists, whereas customers over 30 had ones about 96cm around.



New health warning on big bellies