Jan 16, 2008 9:50 pm US/Eastern
Hidden Fat Poses Danger To Women's Health
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
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Age and stress are considered to be contributing factors to fat that accumulates around organs.
WBZ
Most know that being overweight can increase the risk of developing a long list of health complications. But what many women may not know is the love handles may not be the problem because the most dangerous fat might be the kind they can't see.
Women don't have to be overweight to have a fat problem. Even women who are thin may still have fat that increases their risk of heart disease and diabetes. It's fat that women may never knew they had.
"Visceral fat is the fat that's on the inside," said Dr. Lynda Powell.
Powell hadn't gained any weight so she couldn't figure out why her clothes were getting snug around the waist.
Powell found something she didn't expect when she did a CAT scan of her own body. She found that she had a layer of hidden fat around her organs.
So what causes visceral fat?
"We see a clear association between chronic stress and the development of visceral fat," Powell said.
But the real culprit comes as women age. When estrogen drops and testosterone soars, women tend to develop more of the dangerous fat.
That's also when women start to see the negative health effects.
"In the four short years of the menopausal transition, they accumulated as much coronary-artery disease as it took men a lifetime to develop," Powell explained.
Not all women have it. Researchers don't know why, but African American women, regardless of their weight, tend to have less visceral fat than Caucasian women.
The only way to know for sure if a patient has hidden fat is to have a CAT scan, which is too expensive to do as a routine screening.
The good news is it's relatively easy for women to protect themselves. Exercise will help melt away the fat and keep women from getting more.
And women shouldn't be discouraged if they don't lose inches.
"It's very hard to lose the weight that's on your thighs, but what is really happening that you can tell is that the visceral fat on the inside is the thing that's going first," Powell said.
Powell's research says a daily glass of wine will also help fight the fat.
Most importantly, get a handle on the stress. That's why Powell now does yoga, and her visceral fat is dropping.
"What we're trying to say is that it may not be that all weight is bad," she said. "It may be that where the weight is patterned could the real risk factor."
So women don't need to be a perfect size six to protect their hearts.
Researchers are working on new, less expensive tests to help detect visceral fat.
Read articles on
health.usnews.com andÂ
sciencedaily.com to learn more about visceral fat.
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