Malaysian men overweight and unhealthy

Star: PETALING JAYA: More than three-quarters of urban men in Malaysia are heavily overweight, with some even morbidly obese.
This troubling conclusion was drawn from the Subang Men's Health Research, a randomised, community-based study jointly conducted by University of Malaya and the Malaysian Society of Andrology and the Study of Ageing Male to look at the health status of men in Subang Jaya, an urban community in the Klang Valley.
The results of the study that have just been released reveals how unhealthy many of these men are.
Of the 1,050 men above 40 who responded to the study, 76.7% of them fall into the Body Mass Index categories of overweight, obese and morbidly obese (using Asia-Pacific criteria).
More than half of them also have large stomachs, measured as a waistline of more than 90cm or 35 inches, said Datuk Dr Tan Hui Meng, the lead researcher for the study and a consultant urologist.
"This is shocking. Abnormal waist circumference is so important because it independently increases the risk of cardiovascular disease," said Dr Tan.
He was also alarmed to find that almost 30% of the men were found to have diabetes and pre-diabetes. This means that about one in three men have high blood glucose and are at risk of heart attack, stroke, kidney disease, nerve problems and eye problems.
"The risk of a male diabetic dying of a heart attack is double that of a non-diabetic," Dr Tan warned.