Written by Dr Marilyn Glenville PhD

Volume 2 - Issue 10: October 2008

by Dr Marilyn Glenville PhD

About This Issue

You probably read recently that a man was rejected as a bone marrow donor because his BMI (Body Mass Index) was too high as it put him into the obese category.  This was a man who was very fit and athletic and it was obvious that the weight was made up of muscle.  It is so sad that the BMI is still being used for categorising people into being overweight.  The Army has given up using the BMI as they were getting very fit rugby playing men applying who would actually have been obese according to the BMI criteria but were in fact very muscular with very little body fat.
The importance of where fat is distributed on the body is also crucial and that is why I wrote the Fat around the Middle book.  Further research in this area and published in the American Journal of Epidemiology only recently has highlighted again the relationship between waist circumference and risk of death.  In this study, they looked at 250,000 men and women over 9 years.  Within the group of people they looked at those whose BMI was classed as healthy and then within that group looked at the difference between those with a larger waist (more than 88cm (34.7ins)) for women and 102cm (40.2ins) for men).
So for those with a healthy weight according to the BMI, those women with the higher waist circumference had a 22% increased risk of death and the men with the larger waists had a 23% increased risk of death.

This message is so important, if you have extra fat around the middle of your body, it needs to be reduced.  Not only will your clothes fit better and you will be happier with how you look but the change in body shape will have an enormous impact on your health, now and in the future reducing your risk of cancer (especially breast cancer), heart disease, strokes, high blood pressure, diabetes and Alzheimer’s.

Kind regards

Dr Marilyn Glenville PhD

Table of Contents

Regular features

4 Letter from Marilyn
5 In the news:
Recent progress in the world of health

  • Garlic may be a life-saver
  • You can cut your memory loss by up to a quarter with three oily fish meals a week
  • Walk away from the menopause
  • Four cups of coffee a day can seriously damage a woman’s chances of having a baby
  • Keeping a food diary can help you lose weight
  • Gaining weight is contagious

24 Case Study:
This month’s case study is 40 year old ‘Nicola’ who came to the Clinic for help with her skin

40 Ask Marilyn:
Your questions answered

  • Every few months I feel really low and exhausted for a few weeks. How can I prevent resorting to antidepressants?
  • I want to do all I can to boost my fertility. I know that I need to cut down on coffee, but is it still okay to drink one or two cups?
  • I have been following your Fat Around The Middle plan and have already lost weight and inches off my belly. But I can’t seem to shift any more weight.

45 Ingredient spotlight:

  • Leeks – the health benefits

46 Monthly meal idea:

  • Salmon and vegetable stir fry

47 Resources

  • Where to find books, supplements, tests and consultations

48 Coming next month


Special Articles

9 Peri-Menopause

  • The peri-menopause diet

16 Heartburn

  • Natural ways to cool the fire

20 Clock change

  • How to beat the jet lag

22 Fertility

  • Everyday products that could be affecting your fertility: How to detox safely when you’re trying for a baby

28 Immunity

  • Boosting immunity with nutrition: Marilyn’s top 20 tips

39 Carrier bags

  • Why you’ve got to lose the bag

Top Tips

23 Live the Okinawan way

  • The inhabitants of the Japanese Island of Okinawa are clearly getting something right.