Thaindian News

London, April 1 (ANI): A new study has found that piling on pounds in middle age could significantly raise a man’s risk of blindness later in life.

Researchers at the University of Melbourne have said that an expanding waistline puts men in danger of developing age-related macular degeneration (AMD), reports the Daily Mail.

Even small increases in waist size seem to raise the risk of AMD by up to 75 percent. 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 suggested the hormone could 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.

The researchers 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.

The results showed that even small changes in a man’s waist/hip ratio 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. (ANI)