Big thighs might be in!!

Having just returned from holidays and a little over indulgence, I was rather pleased to learn that maybe there was hope for my thighs after all! It transpires that a study published in the BMJ has linked upper thigh size as an indicator of risk of heart disease and premature death. What it suggests is that those with thighs less 60cm diameter are at a greater risk of heart disease than somebody with large thighs. But before you get too excited, those with thighs much wider than 60 cms (23.5 inches) didn't fair much better either. So the parameters seem quite limited.

It would seem that smaller thighs have less muscle mass, which can put you at risk of developing type-2 diabetes. As with all research, what is normally required is more research to see if the results can consistently be reproduced preferrably in a larger cohort of people. But this is no small research study taking over 12 years following 2811 men and women. Indeed it is likely that GP's will adopt this as another indicator for risk. This because it is simple and easy to measure in a practice setting. This means it will be 1 contributary factor taken along side other factors such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure and familt history again, to establish a risk profile for the patient.

The underlying message coming through to me is another reinforcement that we do need to ensure we exercise regularly to preserve health, so I'm just going to dig out my trainers and work off my holiday excess as a priority.