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Monday, November 8, 2010

Why is belly fat so dangerous?

If you store more fat in your belly than in your hips, your cells are likely to be resistant to insulin which puts you at high risk for high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attacks, strokes and premature death. In one study, researchers measured insulin resistance and compared it to several risk factors for diabetes in men and women: 1) heart-lung fitness; 2) whole-body fatness and 3) abdominal obesity (Diabetes Care, March 2006). They showed that lack of physical fitness and overweight are very significant predictors of diabetes in men and women and that the single most important measure of insulin resistance is storing fat in the belly rather than the hips.

Storing fat in your belly causes you to store excess fat in your liver, which interferes with its function of removing insulin from your bloodstream after it has done its job of driving sugar into cells. When your blood sugar rises after meals, your pancreas is supposed to release enough insulin to keep it from rising too high. If your cells cannot respond to insulin adequately, you are called insulin resistant, your blood sugar rises too high and your pancreas releases huge amounts of insulin. When your blood sugar rises too high, sugar sticks to cells. Once there, the sugar cannot get off the cells and is eventually converted to a poison called sorbitol that destroys the cells to damage nerves, arteries and other tissues throughout your body. Excess insulin acts on your brain to make you eat more and on your arteries to cause heart attacks.


Who is Pre-Diabetic?

You can tell if you are at high risk for diabetes if you store fat primarily in your belly. Pinch your belly; if you can pinch an inch, you are at increased risk and should get a blood test called HBA1C. Having high blood levels of triglycerides and low levels of the good HDL cholesterol that helps prevent heart attacks also increases your risk for diabetes.

When you eat sugar or flour, your blood sugar rises too high. This causes your pancreas to release insulin that converts sugar to triglycerides, which are poured into your bloodstream. Then the good HDL cholesterol tries to remove triglycerides by carrying them back into the liver, so having high blood levels of triglycerides and low blood levels of the good HDL cholesterol are both individual risk factors for diabetes.
High blood levels of insulin constrict arteries to raise blood pressure, so many people who have high blood pressure are also prediabetic. High insulin levels also constrict the arteries leading to your heart to cause heart attacks directly. People with insulin resistance have an increase in small, dense, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, which is more likely to cause heart attacks than the large, buoyant regular LDL cholesterol. High levels of insulin also cause clotting to increase your risk for heart attacks.
A study from Sweden showed that many people discover that they are diabetic only after they have had a heart attack. Researchers recorded blood sugar levels in men who had had heart attacks and then did sugar tolerance tests at discharge and three months later. They found that 40 percent had impaired sugar tolerance tests three months later. This suggests that 40 percent of people who have heart attacks are diabetic, even though they may not know it. The authors recommend that all people with heart attacks be tested for diabetes (1).
You can help to prevent diabetes and heart attacks by avoiding sugar and flour, exercising and eating lots of vegetables.
1) Lancet 2002; 359: 2140-44.

2) Current concepts in insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and the metabolic syndrome. American Journal of Cardiology, 2002, Vol 90, Iss 5A, Suppl. S, pp 19G-26G. JEB Reusch. Denver Vet Adm Med Ctr, 1055 Clairmont St, M-C 111 H, Denver,CO 80220 USA.

3) A rational approach to pathogenesis and treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus, insulin resistance, inflammation, and atherosclerosis. American Journal of Cardiology, 2002, Vol 90, Iss 5A, Suppl. S, pp 27G-33G. P Dandona, A Aljada. Dandona P, WNY, Diabet Endocrinol Ctr, 3 Gates Circle, Buffalo,NY 14209 USA.

4) Rationale for and role of thiazolidinediones in type 2 diabetes mellitus. American Journal of Cardiology, 2002, Vol 90, Iss 5A, Suppl. S, pp 34G-41G. HE Lebovitz. SUNY Hlth Sci Ctr, Dept Med, Div Endocrinol, 450 Clarkson Ave, Brooklyn,NY 11203 USA.

5) Pathogenesis of skeletal muscle insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes mellitus. American Journal of Cardiology, 2002, Vol 90, Iss 5A, Suppl. S, pp 11G-18G. KF Petersen, GI Shulman. Shulman GI, Yale Univ, Sch Med, Howard Hughes Med Inst, Gen Clin Res Ctr, Dept Internal Med, Dept Cellular & Mol Physiol, 295 Congress Ave, BCMM 254C, New Haven,CT 06510 USA

How to Get Rid of Belly Fat

Sit-ups, crunches and other exercises can strengthen your belly muscles, but there is no such thing as spot reduction. Exercising a muscle does not get rid of fat over the specific muscles that are exercised. If it did, tennis players would have less fat in their tennis arms, but they don't.

When you take in more calories than your body burns, you store them as fat. You store more that half the fat in your body underneath your skin and over your muscles. Some people store fat primarily in their hips and are at low risk for heart attacks and diabetes, while others who store their fat primarily in their bellies are at increased risk for heart attacks and diabetes. The "ab" exercises can strengthen sagging belly muscles, but they will not remove extra fat from your belly. The only way to lose fat from the place where you store most of your fat (whether it's your belly or your hips) is to lose weight overall.
By Gabe Mirkin, M.D.
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