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“The importance and the clinical significance of these results will … aid us in identifying patients most at risk.Body mass index, which is established as an indicator of a person’s vulnerability to heart disease, does not take account of the wide variation in the shape of individuals and populations, the researchers said. American footballers weighing upwards of 300lbs may cross the boundary for obesity as measured by their BMI, but be healthy because they carry most of their weight as muscle rather than fat.The type of fat and where it accumulates is more important than the amount. But the study shows waist circumference matters more than weight. The study, conducted in 63 countries, found that, in men, the risk of heart disease increased by between 21 and 40 per cent for every 14cm (5.5in) increase in waist size.In women, the same increase in heart disease risk occurred for every 14.9cm growth in waist size.The risks associated with increasing girth held across all populations, despite the widely varying waist sizes among the 168,000 people who took part.Although people in Far Eastern nations have smaller waists on average than in the West, their risk of heart disease increased at the same rate as they put on extra inches.The findings from the study were presented at the annual conference of the American College of Cardiology in Atlanta. A tape measure is a more important tool in combating heart disease than a set of bathroom scales, research has found. The first large-scale international study of abdominal obesity – excess fat around the middle – has found the simple measuring tool is a better guide to the risk of heart disease than body mass index (BMI), the composite measure of weight and height.
Doctors have long known that the more weight a person gains the higher their risk of a heart attack.

They ran a medical check to clear him for the trial, handed him some papers and a consent form But he felt rushed. Tom Edwards, 21, said: ”I feel pretty lucky but I feel bad for the people who have done it, it is not like me to turn down £1,100 for lying on my back but I was not comfortable with doing it.” Mr Edwards, of Oxford, wanted to do the trial to help pay off his student debt. ‘Something made me suspicious about the trial’ A former student described yesterday how he nearly took part in the Parexel trial but dropped out of it. Companies involved in testing new medicines were bracing for a collapse in volunteers. Around 300 safety trials, known as phase 1 trials, in which drugs are tested for the first time on humans, are run each year in the UK.

They require several thousand human guinea pigs who are paid an average of £150 a day, according to the MHRA. The MHRA said companies wishing to test a drug on humans had to apply for authorisation, under new rules introduced in May 2004. “Parexel would have provided us with information on the drug [known by the code TGN1412, made by TeGenero AG, based in Wurzburg, Germany] showing three to four years research including laboratory tests, tissue tests and trials on animals,” a spokeswoman said. The investigation will examine whether the incident occurred because of human error, contamination of the manufacturing process or a “freak of nature”, said a spokeswoman for the MHRA. A global alert was issued and a trial of the same drug, which had been approved but not started in Germany, was suspended. They removed samples of the drug used by Parexel and are in contact with Scotland Yard. German manufacturers TeGenero AG last night apologised to the men’s families.