Dr. Jason Fung

The only reason we sort of focus obsessively on LDL is because there's a drug that lowers it, right?

People forget that there was a drug that raised HDL, which failed miserably.

And that's the only reason we're not pushing HDL.

And then you can measure waist circumference.

So the other measure you can do very easily, which is free, is the waist to height ratio.

Waist to height ratio.

And it's very easy to take your waist and measure height.

And it should be roughly sort of half.

So if your waist size and, you know, your pant size is a, it's not exactly the same, but if you're say a 32 waist, then 64 inches is your, is what your height should be.

So if you're a 40 waist, then you should be 80 inches, right?

That's the sort of rough.

And the further off you are, it means that your waist is getting bigger and bigger.

And the reason that's important is because it indicates the amount of visceral fat.

Because it's actually not the total amount of fat that matters.

It's actually how much is visceral fat versus subcutaneous fat.

So the subcutaneous fat is the fat under the skin.

And it's actually not that dangerous.

Like you could have a lot of subcutaneous fat and it actually won't matter to your health.

But once you start getting all the abdominal fat, the visceral fat, and that's where you see these people, which are actually quite slender or normal weight, they have this big belly.

That's a problem.