Have a fat belly but thinner thighs? You may have diabetes

We found that people with bigger waist and thinner thighs were at a higher risk of type2 diabetes. It is particularly true for Asians who tend to have a round waist.

DR ATUL GOGIA, consultant of medicine at SRGH

NEW DELHI: Have fat around the belly but thinner legs? You might be at the risk of diabetes.

People with a waist-to-thigh ratio of more than 2.3—meaning people whose waist circumference is more than 2.3 times the circumference of their thigh— are at high risk of type 2-diabetes, says a study by Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in collaboration MLN Medical College, Allahabad. The study was recently published in the Indian Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism.

A total of 1,055 people were enrolled for the study between March 2013 and September 2016. Of them, 534 people were known diabetics and 521 were not.

“We found that people with bigger waist and thinner thighs were at a higher risk of type-2 diabetes. And, this is particularly true for Asians who tend to have a round waist,” said Dr Atul Gogia, one of the authors and a consultant of medicine at SRGH.

“However, if we look at the western population, they too tend to have a round belly but their thighs are equally big, suggesting the fat below the belt has some sort of protective effect against diabetes,” he said.

The doctors suggested this can be used as an inexpensive screening test. “In a routine clinical check-up, the doctor can measure the waist and the thigh or a person can do it on their own too, and if the ratio is found to be more than 2.3, then they can be asked to get their sugar levels checked,” said Dr Gogia.

This is particularly helpful in the case of pre-diabetics who do not show any of the traditional symptoms such as excessive thirst or hunger, frequent urination or fatigue, he said.

Doctors have always believed that fat around the belly puts one at risk for diabetes. “Till now, all studies compared the ratio of waist-to-hip. By going a little lower, we were able to see that the waist-to-thigh ratio has a higher correlation with measures of diabetes and hence a better predictor,” he said.

India has around 70 million diabetics, of which 47.3% remain undiagnosed. Uncontrolled blood sugar levels can lead to complications such as blindness, kidney failure, heart disease, stroke and foot amputation.

“It is of great concern that almost half of the cases remain undiagnosed. Unless identified at an early stage, management of diabetes is futile and uneconomical. So we require simple and inexpensive screening tools that can be used easily, wherever and whenever required by clinician,” said Dr SP Byotra, one of the authors and the chairman of the department of medicine at SRGH.