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Sadly the general public lost one of the most respected and loved journalists on Friday when Tim Russert Passed away. Unfortunately he died of a heart attack at age 58.
When I owned the gym in Washington DC it was not uncommon to see politicians everywhere since I worked at the White House, Department of Commerce, and Pentagon to name a few places. Mind you it wasn’t often I ran into these people in the fitness centers but they were always running through the halls, getting in and out of town cars and rushing from meeting to meeting.
The other night I caught a segment on Larry King and he was interviewing cardiovascular experts, and heart specialists grilling them as only Larry King can about Tim Russert’s heart attack. Tim was a diligent man and as recently as April had taken a stress test. However this didn’t reveal any clue about the apparent heart disease.
I was glad to hear Larry King ask the specialists “How else could Tim have known he was at risk for heart disease?”The response if you didn’t see the interview may be surprising because of the simple way you too can figure it out.
The answer …his waist circumference.
The size of your belt in relationship to your overall body is a very simply predictor of a risk of heart disease. Now obtaining a six pack or that smaller dress size is an awesome goal but now you know you can actually save your life by getting a flatter belly!
One of the doctor’s on Larry King gave this simple calculation that you can do to see if you are at high risk for heart disease.
Find your height in inches
- Measure your waist at the level of your belly button (not your pants size–actual inches), using a tape measure.
- If your waist size is more than half of your height, then you might be at risk for heart disease.
So for example, lets take a man 6 feet tall whose height is 72 inches.
Half of that height is 36 inches.
If the waist size is 36 inches or more, It is probably a good idea to check into whether he has a higher risk of heart disease.
So grab a tape measure from the sewing kit, wrap it around your body when you get out of the shower and see what you get.
If your waist is too big, you probably need to take the dog for a walk and cut down on the dessert.