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| The relationship between thigh circumference and mortality of interest. The association of thigh circumference with all-cause mortality...shown after controlling for age, gender, body mass index, waist circumference, moderate activity, total cholesterol, anti-diabetic drugs, estimated glomerular filtration rate, smoking status, race, baseline cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular diseases. The solid lines represented the hazard ratios of thigh circumference and the shadowed area represented the corresponding 95% confidence intervals Source |
The average thigh circumference was 52 cm or approximately 20.4". Increasing the thigh circumference by 10% (2") reduced the all-causes Hazard Ratio by approximately 15%.
Correlation does not prove causality but this is interesting. Increased muscle-mass is proven to smooth out blood-sugar spikes. In general, physical fitness is related to better cardio-vascular health and reduced risk of falling.
Interesting bit of research.
ReplyDeleteA nice thing about statistics is you can make them say anything... SOF (smirk on face)
ReplyDeleteI hope you all have a great weekend
Funny thing. Some years ago I did a
ReplyDeleten informal study of wheelchair bound folks. Maybe 120 subjects. On general happiness.
Women were almost uniformly unhappy. Men were divided.
Those least likely to be happy were suffering from wasting diseases.
Predominantly women.
The happiest were all men who did stupid human tricks. Often involving motor vehicles and poor judgement.
I'm a daily bicyclist. No, I don't wear a helmet. It interferes with my peripheral vision and my hearing.
I spent close to a year in a wheelchair once.
Could call it bicycle related. I was removing my bike from the rack on the front of a city bus, and it took off, crushing my left foot in the process. The word "amputation" was used. NO.
My ankle is literally s rewed up, and my fledgling career as a sandle model was brought to a halt, spent a year in a wheelchair before progressing to a walker (ugh), then crutches (also ugh) and then a cane.
Still use a cane on bad days, but wirh a stylish dlair. The chicks dig that!
JC@846:
Delete"No, I don't wear a helmet. It interferes with my peripheral vision and my hearing."
Have you considered a different helmet?
Consisting of FAT cottage cheese thighs or muscle?
ReplyDeleteThe way I read the article, the graphic in the post controlled for Body Mass Index. So if you took one person with a BMI of 36 (for instance) and they started weight training which changes the body composition and the distribution of mass but doesn't necessarily change the person's weight...they could still be "fluffy" but their thigh circumference would increase and they could expect increased longevity.
DeleteWhile BMI and thigh circumference are coupled variables (not fully independent of each other) they don't necessarily move together.
The most positive thing about the article is that nearly any person with low muscle-mass can increase it. Thigh circumference is a proxy for overall muscle mass and while big "guns" (arms) are impressive most people have more potential to add more pounds of muscles on their legs and core.
BMI was originally devised as an index to diagnose malnutrition.
ReplyDeleteTo that extent is is accurate. Using it as a predictor of health and fitness? Very NO!