document: Potbellied men more likely to go blind A new study has found that piling on pounds in middle age could significantly raise a man 's risk of blindness later in life . Researchers at the University of Melbourne have said that an expanding waistline puts men in danger of developing age-related macular degeneration -LRB- AMD -RRB- , reports the Daily Mail . Even small increases in waist size seem to raise the risk of AMD by up to 75 % . But women do not appear to be affected . The difference between the sexes is thought to be due to the female hormone oestrogen . Abdominal fat releases oestrogen into the body and animal studies suggested the hormone could cause inflammation in blood vessels at the back of the eyes . Women have higher levels of oestrogen all their lives and so seem less sensitive to its effects . The researchers monitored changes in the waistlines of more than 21,000 men and women , aged between 40 and 69 , over several years and tracked how many went on to develop AMD . '' `` There is evidence that chronic inflammation is involved in AMD and obesity is a pro-inflammatory state , '' '' said the scientists . The results showed that even small changes in a man 's waist/hip ratio led to a sharp increase in risk . A healthy score is usually anything below a ratio of around 0.95 . Anything above that raises the risk of diabetes and heart disease . But the Australian team found that for each increase of 0.1 in the waist/hip ratio , a man 's chances of developing AMD soared by 75 % .
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