Hostility and obesity in men interrelated: Study

Villejuif, February 28: A latest study suggests that hostile men may gain more weight as compared to their more relaxed contemporaries.

The study was conducted by Dr. Hermann Nabi from Hospital Paul Brousse in Villejuif, France and his colleagues. They discovered that more hostile a man’s nature; greater was the increase in his Body Mass Indexdefine (BMI) over the next two decades.

BMI is basically the ratio of height to weight. It finds out if a person has normal weight, is underweight or overweight.

The researchers examined data of 6,484 men and women who were a part of a study on socio-economic status and health in United Kingdom. At the commencement of the study, the participants were in the age group 35 to 55.

At the start, the volunteers completed a standard scale measuring hostility. Over a period of 19 years, their BMI was examined on 4 occasions.

The researchers found that men and women with high levels of hostility had higher BMIs as well.

In case of women, the link between BMI and hostility remained constant. But in men, hostility appeared to up the tendency of putting up more pounds.

Hostility affects BMI in different ways. For instance, hostile people may not follow guidelines on diet and exercise, or experience more depressiondefine.

Besides the link with obesity, previous studies also point to the relation between hostility and heart disease, high blood pressure and a greater overall mortality risk.

A report on the study has been published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Obesity in men increases with age. Though it is chiefly attributed to the lack of proper eating habits and exercise routine, the new study shows the entire issue in a different light. Aggressive behavior can greatly enhance the tendency to put on weight, more prominently in case of men.