What comes to your mind when you hear “Belly fat”?
Call it “Belly fat” as you like, but what I’m specifically talking about is visceral fat, the fat stored deeply inside your abdominal cavity and around your organs – unlike subcutaneous fat (under your skin) that’s visible and pinchable. (Image Credit: FitWeightCare)
Fat on Visceral Organs (i.e. intra-abdominal fat)
Everybody likely has visceral fat whether knowing it or not. but how much is too much?
Although visceral fat can only be measured by CT and MRI now, if you or your loved ones have an overhanging belly and large waist, that’s a warning sign of dangerous fat inside. That said, it doesn’t exclude relatively lean (with normal waistline) folks.
So, how dangerous is visceral fat exactly?
Visceral fat has deleterious effects on a variety of your organs and their functions. Clearly, it is attributed to increased inflammation by provoking inflammatory pathways and releasing pro-inflammatory chemicals. Also, extra visceral fat is strongly linked to insulin resistance and metabolic diseases, and to an elevated risk of death, even for people who have a normal body mass index (BMI).
Carrying around excess visceral fat increases a risk for a long list of chronic conditions or diseases including, but not limited to –
- Coronary artery disease, heart attack, stroke
- Cancer
- High blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, and high blood glucose
- Obesity – making it hard to lose weight
- Type 2 diabetes – due to insulin resistance
- Dementia
- Depression and mood problems
- Sleep disorders (e.g. sleep apnea)
- Endocrinal, sexual dysfunction
- Arthritis
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Here, I want to lay emphasize on cancer, as cancer’s impact on public health is increasingly prevalent. Excess visceral fat is a risk factor for several cancers of the gastrointestinal system, particularly esophageal, stomach, small intestine, colorectal, pancreatic, liver and gallbladder cancers. This is because overloaded adiposity is associated with fat tissue-derived inflammation, alterations in insulin signaling and sexual hormones’ pathways, then turning normal cells into cancerous ones. Moreover, visceral obesity is greatly associated with breast cancer.
Fat’s Influence on Other Vital Organs (e.g. brain)
Just because visceral fat is wrapped around abdominal organs such as the pancreas, liver and kidneys, it doesn’t mean that its damaging effects are local. For instance, liver fat may have a direct association with brain aging or shrinking. What’s more, greater visceral fat is correlated with a smaller total brain volume, which has been linked to neurodegenerative processes, and used as one of predictors for dementia.
Excessive visceral fat results from a combination of hormonal, dietary, lifestyle (i.e. sedentary), and genetic factors. Now you can see how any big belly and large waistline are unhealthy.
Obesity and Aging
As we get older, we store more visceral fat, because changes in body composition occur and co-morbidities accumulate. However, hopefully by now, you’ve come to the realization – simply accepting a growing midsection as an unavoidable product of aging may ignore or tone down your health risks.
On issues of aging and obesity, it’s inevitable not to touch on the gut microbiome, the microbial communities inhabiting the human body and containing a diverse array of microbes (in trillions).
The gut microbiota has emerged as a crucial regulator between how our food interacts with our body. They modulate how we balance levels of blood sugar and how we store fat, as well as how we respond to hormones. They play a key role in obesity.
As we age, altered gut microbiota in their composition and metabolites (called Dysbiosis) occurs. Science reveals that our gut microbiota undergoes the most prominent changes during infancy and old age, and profoundly, our immune health is also in its weakest and most unstable state during these two critical stages of life, indicating that the gut microbiota and immune function develop hand-in-hand with age.
Sure enough, with aging, levels of inflammatory mediators in the blood rise, and hence age-associated inflammation becomes a strong risk factor for morbidity and mortality in elders. It turns out that the gut microbiota may act as invisible yet important players in chronic inflammation.
Aging-associated dysbiosis can promote intestinal barrier’s broken-down, systemic inflammation and immune dysfunction, which all contribute to the pathogenesis and progression of various diseases commonly seen in old people such as obesity-related disorders, liver diseases, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Age-related changes in the gut microbiota have also been associated with various neurological and neurodegenerative disorders due to disturbed gut-brain communication.
Clearly, the gut microbiota can have a potent impact on human health and diseases. But to date, there is no knowledge on “Which” gut microbe is doing “What”, “Why” and “How”. Without doubt, we can anticipate to learn more soon as a remarkable pace of scientific research is going on.
The Key Point Is –
If fats deposit where they should not be or more than they should be, then that will change a physiological condition to a pathological one through the effects of inflammatory chemicals. Excess body fat is like an inflammation-pumping machine.
For this reason, any extra fat – from both body and diet – any big belly or larger waistline poses a hidden risk. With obesity, people carry not only fat or weight but pain and health consequences.
Obesity is serious, regardless of the debate whether obesity is a disease or a condition. Obesity is just as significant as high blood pressure and high cholesterol – while none of them are actual diseases (but symptoms), all need to be medically treated lest they lead to termed “diseases”.
Indeed, causes of obesity are multifactorial and complex. However, for some, obesity is caused by genetic factor(s) and could be a life-long condition, which needs to be medically treated and individually managed.
Doses of Wisdom for Prevention
Obesity, in most cases, is a modifiable and preventable. Lifestyle, diet and physical activity are key factors to prevent, ease or slow down obesity even with aging.
So, please don’t see obesity as a death sentence, because it’s not.
Nutritional and physical approaches, that are within your control, can prevent dangerous fat buildup, and thus lower a risk for obesity as well as chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer.
Furthermore, getting a good night sleep and reducing stress are also beneficial for a healthy weight, because the stress cortisol can increase the amount of visceral fat your body stores.
Ultimately, consider to recruit your hidden microbial players, keeping them in harmony and happy, which could help your weight control.
Bonus: Valuable Principle on Diet
An optimal diet to manage obesity should be individual-focused and ensure a long-term maintenance of weight loss, along with the diet that’s safe, efficient, nutritionally adequate, culturally acceptable and economically affordable.
Critically important and specifically effective are diet plans including low-fat, low-carbohydrate, low-calorie but high-protein, high-fiber diet, and Mediterranean diet. Without fail, go for fiber-rich foods (e.g. fruits, vegetables and whole grains), because they are essential to boost growth and activity of beneficial gut microbiota.
Remember low-sugar diet too, as research findings indicate that a high-sugar diet increases visceral fat in humans and animals.
References (including Pt. 1 & Pt. 2) Click here
Image Credit: by FitWeightCare, CPD