Even if your blood pressure and cholesterol are normal, extra weight during middle age can still put your health at serious risk.
Researchers tracked over 17,000 patients for 30 years and found that being overweight in mid-life substantially increased the risk death from heart disease later on, even if all other factors were normal.
Higher blood pressure and cholesterol have been generally thought to be responsible for the higher risk overweight people face from heart disease. But there is increasing evidence suggesting that excess weight is a risk factor all by itself.
Obese study participants with normal blood pressure and cholesterol were 43 percent more likely than normal-weight participants to eventually die of heart disease.
They were also four times more likely to be hospitalized for heart disease. Moderately overweight participants also ran a somewhat higher risk than normal-weight people.
If that growing belly hasn't motivated you to lose weight yet, perhaps the findings of this new study will.
But if you're carrying those extra pounds but have otherwise normal readings during checkups, don't necessarily expect your doctor to scold you about getting rid of it.
That's due to a myth, perpetuated by patients and doctors, that a growing belly is nothing to be concerned about until blood pressure and cholesterol levels become elevated.
The simple fact is that when you are overweight this is typically due to elevated insulin and leptin levels. It is the elevation of these two powerful hormones that increase the risk of nearly every chronic degenerative disease, including heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer's.
Please remember that cholesterol is not the cause of heart disease at all, and the belief that it is puts many lives at risk, both from underlying causes that go untreated, and from the dangerous drugs used to lower cholesterol levels.
Fortunately, you have all the free tools you need on my Web site to prove all those alarming numbers wrong.
Here's an easy way to remember them: