Pot Belly Causes Blindness, Say Scientists

Piling on the pounds in middle age could significantly raise a man’s risk of blindness later in life, a study published by the Daily Mail of London today has found.

An expanding waistline puts men in danger of developing age-related macular degeneration – Britain’s leading cause of vision loss – say the researchers.

Even small increases in waist size seem to raise the risk of AMD by up to 75 per cent. But women do not appear to be affected.

The difference between the sexes is thought to be due to the female hormone oestrogen.

Abdominal fat releases oestrogen into the body and animal studies suggest the hormone can cause inflammation in blood vessels at the back of the eyes.

Women have higher levels of oestrogen all their lives and so seem less sensitive to its effects.

Researchers at the University of Melbourne monitored changes in the waistlines of more than 21,000 men and women, aged between 40 and 69, over several years and tracked how many went on to develop AMD.

‘There is evidence that chronic inflammation is involved in AMD and obesity is a pro-inflammatory state,’ said the scientists.

‘Our study underlines the importance of abdominal obesity as a risk factor for AMD.’

The results showed that even small changes in a man’s waist/hip ratio – a measure of his waist compared to his hips – led to a sharp increase in risk.

A healthy score is usually anything below a ratio of around 0.95. Anything above that raises the risk of diabetes and heart disease.

But the Australian team found that for each increase of 0.1 in the waist/hip ratio, a man’s chances of developing AMD soared by 75 per cent.

Their findings back up a study last year that suggested diet was a crucial factor in the likelihood of AMD.

It found eating ten portions or more of red meat a week raised the risk by half in adults. But tucking into chicken three times a week seemed to more than halve the risk of blindness.

And British research suggests eating more fruit, vegetables and nuts could reduce disease rates by up to 20 per cent.