Fat White People Are More Likely to Get Acid Reflux

I just came across a news story about some researchers that studied 80,000 members of a California health plan. They surveyed the participants about acid reflux. Here’s a quote from the story:

Obesity, especially excessive abdominal fat, may be a much stronger contributor to acid reflux in white people than in other racial groups. Among white men and women, those in the group with the largest waist sizes were 85 percent more likely to suffer acid reflux than those who were slimmest around the middle. There was no similar risk seen among black or Asian study participants, however.

I’m sorry, but that has to be preliminary research. That needs to be studied in more detail. I’m not questioning whether or not being fat increases your risk of acid reflux. I am questioning why a fat white person is more likely to get acid reflux than a fat black or fat asian person.

As I said, the results may be premature, there has to be some other factor than race. How about diet? I’ll bet statistically that whites, blacks and asians have different diets. That might contribute more to an increased chance of acid reflux than race. It just doesn’t make much sense to me.

You can read the full article here if you’re interested:

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?alias=large-waist-linked-to-aci