Fatter Legs Decrease the Risk of High Blood Pressure

Having fat around your legs is necessarily not bad and may even protect you from hypertension, reports a new study. The findings of the study are presented at the AHA Hypertension Scientific Sessions 2020. "Eventually, what we found in this study is a continued review of 'it's not just important about how much fat you have, but where the fat is located," reports principal investigator Aayush Visaria from Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.

Although we confidently know that the fat around your waist is detrimental to health, the same cannot be said for leg fat. According to our findings, people with fatter legs appear less likely to have high blood pressure.

Researchers analyzed the high blood pressure rate in relation to the percentage of fat tissue in the legs of approximately 6,000 adults. The study has found that adults with fat legs are less likely to have a high blood pressure than their leaner-limbed counterparts.

In addition, participants' risk with higher leg fat was 53 percent lower for diastolic high blood pressure and 39 percent lower for systolic high blood pressure.

After adjusting for several factors, such as age, race, sex, and ethnicity, smoking, education, alcohol use, cholesterol levels, and waist fat, hypertension risk was still lower among study volunteers with higher leg fat percentages, although not as low as before adjusting for these factors.

"If more robust studies confirm these results, and in studies using easily accessible measurement techniques like thigh circumference, there is a possibility to affect patient care," stated Visaria. "Just as waist circumference is used to measure abdominal fat, thigh circumference may be a valuable tool, although it's a little cumbersome and not as extensively studied in the U.S. population."

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Source-Medindia