eMedExpert Blog

Belly fat, also known as visceral fat or abdominal obesity, was big news in last years as study after study linked it to serious health problems – and even an increased death risk. And you don’t have to be obese or even overweight for it to cause you trouble!

What trouble? The list goes below.

1Belly Fat Doubles Death Risk

Belly fat has been linked to an increased risk of heart disease and diabetes. Now an important new study links belly fat to early death.

Researchers1 followed about 360,000 Europeans enrolled in one of the largest, longest health studies in the world. They found that people with the most belly fat had about double the risk of dying prematurely as people with the least amount of belly fat.

It is not the first time when research makes such an association, but the sheer size of this study gives us a far more accurate picture. The study provides some of the strongest evidence yet linking belly fat to early death.

The most important result of this study is the finding that not just being overweight, but also the distribution of body fat, affects the risk of premature death.

2Belly Fat in Midlife, Dementia Later

According to new study3 getting a big belly in midlife ups risk of dementia later in life. This is the first time research has linked central obesity in midlife with dementia later in life.

The study3 of more than 6,000 people found that the more fat they had in their guts in their early to mid 40s, the greater their chances of becoming forgetful and confused and showing other signs of senility as they aged (in their 70s). Those who had the most expansive midsections faced more than twice the risk of the leanest.

The worst scenario was being obese with a lot of belly fat. Obese people with a big belly had 3.6 times greater risk of dementia compared to people with normal weight and low belly fat. People of normal weight but with excess belly fat had a 1.89 times higher risk of getting dementia than those of normal weight and no excess belly fat.

3Belly Size May Be Better Stroke Predictor Than BMI

Extra weight around belly increases the risk of stroke.

A new study from Germany4 suggests that belly size and other markers of abdominal fat may be a better predictor of stroke than body mass index (BMI).

The researchers took various measures of obesity, including BMI, waist to hip ratio, waist circumference and waist to height ratio (these last three being what they called markers of abdominal adiposity, or abdominal fat).

The results showed that markers of abdominal adiposity were strongly linked to risk of stroke and transient ischemic attack (TIA), regardless of the other risk factors.

People with bigger waist circumferences (greater than 40 inches for men and 35 inches for women) had four times the stroke risk when compared with people with typical waistlines.

Also, participants with the largest waist-to-hip ratio had nearly 8 times the risk of developing a stroke or TIA.

4Waists Mattered More Than Weight for Women

Large waists linked to higher death rates in women, regardless of weight.

That news comes from a study of 44,600 female nurses enrolled in a long-term health study5.

Regardless of other factors, including BMI, women with larger waists and greater waist-to-hip ratios had higher death rates from all causes, including heart disease and cancer, which are the top two killers of U.S. women.

5Belly Fat Cells Act As an Organ

Fat is now considered to be an active, complex endocrine organ.

Researchers have found that abdominal fat cells aren’t just dormant energy waiting to be burned up. The cells are active, producing hormones and other substances that can affect your metabolism and health6.

Visceral fat releases a lot of fatty acids (breakdown products of fat) into the bloodstream through the portal vein and liver, a phenomenon that until recently had been thought of as the major reason why fat promotes insulin resistance7.

Fat cells inside the abdomen are secreting molecules that increase inflammation. The researchers investigated the blood that runs through the visceral fat and discovered that the visceral fat was releasing high amounts of an inflammatory molecule called interleukin-6 (IL-6) into portal vein blood, boosting systemic inflammation and insulin resistance10.

6 Vicious Cycle: Belly Fat ‘Makes More Fat Cells’

Canadian scientists from the Lawson Health Research Institute, part of the University of Western Ontario, found that abdominal fat cells can produce an appetite-inducing hormone known as Neuropeptide Y (NPY)8. It is the most potent appetite-stimulating hormone known.

Researchers have always believed that only the brain produces the hormone NPY. It is thought the excessive production of NPY in the brain is one of the main reasons why overweight people eat more food.

But leading study author Dr. Kaiping Yang, found that the abdominal fat in obese rats also produced the hormone. If Neuropeptide from belly fat makes it into the blood stream and to the brain, it could explain why some people just get fatter and fatter.

A fat cell cannot replicate itself. But the researchers found NPY increases fat cell number by stimulating the replication of fat cell precursor cells, which then change into fat cells.

7Losing Belly Fat May Cut Risk of Eye Disease

New research2 suggests that people who lose weight around their middle, particularly those who are obese, can decrease their odds of developing age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of vision impairment in the United States.

Prior research9 found that overall and abdominal obesity may increase the risk of developing advanced age-related macular degeneration. Higher waist circumference was associated with a 2-fold increased risk, and higher waist-hip ratio was associated with a 1.8-fold increased risk of progressing to advanced AMD.

In the current study2, researchers examined how changes in weight impact the risk of AMD in 12,515 adults between 45 and 64 years old who were followed for 6 years. They found that with a 3 percent or greater drop in waist-to-hip ratio, the odds of AMD fell significantly compared to people with stable weight.

Sources & References

• 1. Pischon T, Boeing H, Hoffmann K, Bergmann M, Schulze MB, Overvad K, van der Schouw YT, Spencer E, et al. General and abdominal adiposity and risk of death in Europe. NEJM. 2008 Nov 13;359(20):2105-20.
• 2. Peeters A, Magliano DJ, Stevens J, Duncan BB, Klein R, Wong TY. Changes in abdominal obesity and age-related macular degeneration: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study.Arch Ophthalmol. 2008 Nov;126(11):1554-60.
• 3. Whitmer RA, Gustafson DR, Barrett-Connor E, Haan MN, Gunderson EP, Yaffe K. Central obesity and increased risk of dementia more than three decades later. Neurology 2008 Sep 30;71(14):1057-64.
• 4. Winter Y, Rohrmann S, Linseisen J, Lanczik O, Ringleb PA, Hebebrand J, Back T. Contribution of obesity and abdominal fat mass to risk of stroke and transient ischemic attacks. Stroke. 2008 Dec;39(12):3145-51. PubMed
• 5. Zhang C, Rexrode KM, van Dam RM, Li TY, Hu FB. Abdominal obesity and the risk of all-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality: sixteen years of follow-up in US women. Circulation. 2008 Apr 1;117(13):1658-67.
• 6. Bon GB. Adipose tissue: a multifunctional organ. G Ital Cardiol (Rome). 2008 Apr;9(4 Suppl 1):23S-28S.
• 7. Bonora E, Brangani C, Pichiri I. Abdominal obesity and diabetes. G Ital Cardiol (Rome). 2008 Apr;9(4 Suppl 1):40S-53S.
• 8. Yang K, Guan H, Arany E, Hill DJ, Cao X. Neuropeptide Y is produced in visceral adipose tissue and promotes proliferation of adipocyte precursor cells via the Y1 receptor. FASEB J. 2008 Jul;22(7):2452-64.
• 9. Seddon JM, Cote J, Davis N, Rosner B. Progression of age-related macular degeneration: association with body mass index, waist circumference, and waist-hip ratio. Arch Ophthalmol. 2003 Jun;121(6):785-92. PubMed
• 10. Fontana L, Eagon JC, Trujillo ME, Scherer PE, Klein S. Visceral fat adipokine secretion is associated with systemic inflammation in obese humans. Diabetes. 2007 Apr;56(4):1010-3.