HAVING A FAT BELLY SHORTENS LIFE
Report #6609 9/24/95
You are at increased risks for suffering a heart attack and diabetes if you store fat primarily in your belly, rather than your hips.
Storing fat primarily in your belly markedly increases your chances of being obese and having high blood pressure, having low blood levels of the good HDL cholesterol and high blood levels of the bad LDL cholesterol and high blood levels of fatty triglycerides. (1,2) Each of these factors increase your chances of developing diabetes and heart attacks.
Men are far more likely than women to store fat in their bellies. Women who have highest levels of the male hormone, testosterone are the ones most likely to store fat in their bellies and get heart attacks and diabetes. Men who have the lowest estrogen levels are the ones most likely to suffer diabetes and heart attacks.
The fat cells that are deposited in your belly are much different from those in your hips. The blood that flows from belly fat goes directly to your liver, whereas the blood that flows from your hips goes into your general circulation. The livers of those who are primarily belly-fat storers do not remove insulin from the bloodstream as effectively as the livers of hip-fat storers. Belly-fat storers have more insulin in their bloodstream and higher blood sugar levels. Extra insulin raises blood levels of the bad LDL cholesterol and increases your chances of suffering a heart attack. (3).
By Gabe Mirkin, M.D., for CBS Radio News
1) Y Sakurai, S Kono, K Shinchi, S Honjo, I Todoroki, K Wakabayashi, K Imanishi, H
Nishikawa, S Ogawa, M Katsurada. Relation of waist-hip ratio to glucose tolerance, blood
pressure, and serum lipids in middle-aged Japanese males. International Journal of Obesity
19: 9 (SEP 1995):632-637.
2) CE Flodmark, T Sveger, P Nilssonehle. Waist measurement correlates to a potentially
atherogenic lipoprotein profile in obese 12-14-year-old children. Acta Paediatrica 83: 9
(SEP 1994):941-945.
3) Med and Sci in Sports and Exercise. 1990(June);22(3): 291- 297.
4) G Depergola, V Triggiani, F Giorgino, MR Cospite, G Garruti, M Cignarelli, E Guastamacchia, R Giorgino. The free testosterone to dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate molar ratio as a marker of visceral fat accumulation in premenopausal obese women. International Journal of Obesity 18: 10 (OCT 1994):659-664. The FT to DHEAS molar ratio is the androgenic parameter that most closely relates to the accumulation of visceral fat in premenopausal obese women.