A simple test may be able to provide Indian (people that are either from, or decendants of people from, the country India) with a fairly accurate assesment as to their chances of developing diabetes and heart disease.

All it requires is a tape measure.

If you are an Indian woman with a waist of over 32 inches or an Indian man with a waist of 35 inches or more, your odds of developing diabetes or heart disease are incredibly high.

Based on numerous studies, Indian men develop heart disease more than any other group, regardless of where in the world they live. In India, the percentage of heart disease his risen by 300 percent over the past thirty years, while it has steadily decreased by about 60 percent here in the U.S. As for diabetes, the risk is also very great for Indian men and women, particularly those who have expanded wasitlines. The belly fat is more dangerous than fat in, say, the legs or buttocks because it "produces biological and active molecules and hormones that lead to the develoment of diabetes and cardiovascular disease."

It also appears as though age does not play as big a factor as one might anticipate. The information also posited that Indian children as young as 8 years old demonstrated a greater risk for diabetes and heart disease as their waistlines grew. In fact, the propensity to develop these two diseases is twice as high in Indian children than in white children "because of the different distribution of abdominal obesity and general obesity."