EMBARGO LIFTED AT 9AM AEST FRI 4 SEPTEMBER 2009

New research out of Denmark shows men and women whose thighs are less than 60cm in circumference have a higher risk of premature death and heart disease. The study also concluded that individuals whose thighs are wider than 60cm have no added protective effect.

Almost 3000 individuals took part in the study in Denmark - the relationship between thigh size and early death and disease was found after taking body fat and other high risk factors (such as smoking and high cholesterol) into account. The authors suggest that the risk from narrow thighs could be associated with too little muscle mass in the region. This is problematic because it may lead to low insulin sensitivity and type 2 diabetes and, in the long run, heart disease, they explain.

Feel free to use these quotes in your stories. Any further comments will be posted here. If you would like a copy of the paper or would like to speak to an expert, please don’t hesitate to contact us on (08) 8207 7415 or by email.
Professor Tim Olds is a Professor of Health Sciences at the University of South Australia.

“Really interesting. It looks like a solid study. The interesting bit is when thigh circumference is adjusted for percentage body fat. So thigh circumference is probably, as the authors point out, an index of fat-free mass. I doubt it is regional fat-free mass which is important - probably whole-body fat-free mass. So this suggests that fat-free mass is protective against cardiovascular disease independent of fat mass.

This is a very interesting line of research, because it would suggest that interventions which protect or increase muscle mass (such as weight training) may be effective in reducing cardiovascular disease even if no loss of body fat occurs. The American College of Sports Medicine specifically recommends weight training for adults. However, it should be remembered that fat-free mass can represent both genetic and behavioural factors. It could be that those with a large fat-free mass do, or have in the past, exercised more, and it is the exercise which is actually the beneficial factor.

In our Australian dataset, about 75% of men and 80% of women aged 18 and over have thigh girths below the ‘cut-off’ suggested in the paper (60 cm).”

Associate Professor Jon Buckley is Deputy Director of the Nutritional Physiology Research Centre and Co-Director of the ATN Centre for Metabolic Fitness at the Sansom Institute for Health Research at the University of South Australia

“This study suggests that having a low thigh circumference is associated with an increased risk of developing heart disease or dying prematurely. There are plausible physiological mechanisms to support the concept that a low mass of lean tissue in the thighs (which might reflect a low lean tissue mass overall) can predispose to the development of risk factors for heart disease and all cause mortality. It is also well recognized that depositing fat intra-abdominally or in ectopic depots (within organs and tissues) is associated the development of risk factors for heart disease. Thus, if more fat is deposited in subcutaneous fat depots, including on the thighs, this might reduce the risk of developing heart disease for any given level of total body fat. Therefore, having smaller thighs might be a result of a lower lean tissue mass or a reduced deposition of fat into subcutaneous tissue (and hence a greater deposition into more risk associated fat depots), and this might explain why having a low thigh circumference is associated with an increased risk of heart disease or premature death.

Unfortunately however, as pointed out in the editorial by Ian A Scott which accompanies the publication of the paper, while this study did evaluate almost 3000 men and women, the strength of the association between thigh circumference and the risk of disease was not strong enough that this association could be used on a patient by patient basis to determine their individual risk.”