India, May 11 -- A large imaging analysis published in Radiology suggests that body weight alone may not reveal a person's true health risks. Using whole-body MRI scans from tens of thousands of adults, scientists found that harmful fat hidden deep inside the body and within muscles was linked to future diabetes, cardiovascular problems, and a greater risk of early death (1). The work used automated MRI body composition analysis to measure different fat and muscle compartments across the adult lifespan. The findings point toward a growing interest in understanding not just how much fat a person carries, but where that fat is stored and how muscle health changes with age.

The analysis included more than 66,000 adults from the UK and Germ...