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Nutritionist Medical Knowledge Readiness

Scientific Affairs – Sylvia AzizCycle Meeting December 2016

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By the End of this Training You should be able to :

• Understand Abdominal Visceral Fat, What is it ? What causes it ? What are the increased risks with it ?

• Understand the relation between adiposity anf type 2 diabetes.

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Abdominal Visceral Fat ?, What is it ? What causes it ? What are the increased

risks with it ?

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What Is Visceral Fat?Visceral fat is technically excess intra-abdominal adipose tissue accumulation. In other words, it’s known as a “deep” fat that’s stored further underneath the skin than “subcutaneous” belly fat. It’s a form of gel-like fat that’s actually wrapped around major organs, including the liver, pancreas and kidneys.If you have a protruding belly and large waist, that’s a clear sign you’re storing dangerous visceral fat. While it’s most noticeable and pronounced in obese individuals, anyone can have visceral fit, many without even knowing it.Visceral fat is especially dangerous because, as you’ll find out, these fat cells do more than just sit there and cause your pants to feel tight — they also change the way your body operates.https://draxe.com/visceral-fat/

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Visceral fat is considered toxic and spells double-trouble in the body because it’s capable of provoking inflammatory pathways, plus signaling molecules that can interfere with the body’s normal hormonal functions. In fact, it acts almost like its very own organ since it’s capable of having such a large impact on the body.Fat cells do more than simply store extra calories — they have proved to be much more involved in human physiology than we had previously thought. We now know that fat tissue itself acts like its own organ by pumping out hormones and inflammatory substances. Storing excess fat around the organs increases production of pro-inflammatory chemicals, also called cytokines, which leads to inflammation; at the same time, it interferes with hormones that regulate appetite, weight, mood and brain function.

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6 Risks of High Levels of Visceral Fat1. Increased Inflammation

A major concern is that visceral fat produces hormonal and inflammatory molecules that get dumped directly into the liver, leading to even more inflammation and hormone-disrupting reactions. If you have more fat stored than you need, especially around visceral organs like the liver, heart, kidneys, pancreas and intestines, your body becomes inflamed and your metabolism suffers, making it a hard cycle to break out of.

Visceral fat does more than just lead to inflammation down the road — it becomes inflamed itself by producing something known as interleukin-6, a type of inflammatory molecule. This kind of fat stores inflammatory white blood cells and kicks off a series of autoimmune reactions. Inflammation is at the root of most diseases, and this is why inflammatory belly fat is linked with cognitive decline, arthritis, diabetes and so on.

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6 Risks of High Levels of Visceral Fat2. Higher Risk of Diabetes

More than other types of fats, visceral fat is thought to play a large role in insulin resistance, which means a heightened risk for developing diabetes. For example, abdominal fat is viewed as a bigger health risk than hip or thigh fat, not only for diabetes but for many other chronic diseases too. Some evidence suggests that pear-shaped women are better protected from metabolic diseases like diabetes compared to big-bellied people.While men are more likely to store noticeable levels of visceral fat, women are definitely at risk, too. Reducing visceral fat through a healthy diet and other means is one of the most important natural diabetes treatments there is that’s within your control.

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6 Risks of High Levels of Visceral Fat3. Makes It Harder to Lose Weight

People tend to get heavier and heavier as time goes on — and one of the main reasons is that stored body fat affects hunger levels, especially visceral fat. It might seem hard to imagine, but your metabolism is largely governed by your level of existing stored fat. Fat messes with our appetites and makes it easier to overeat due to hormonal changes that take place.

Higher levels of insulin also promote more efficient conversion of our calories into body fat, so this vicious cycle continues. Eating refined carbohydrates, as opposed to complex carbohydrates in their natural state like vegetables and fruit, can cause the body’s “set point” for body weight to increase.

Your “set point” is basically the weight that your body tries to maintain through control of the brain’s hormonal messengers. When you eat refined carbohydrates such as white flour and sugar, the fat-storing hormones are produced in excess, raising the set point and making it hard to follow a moderate-calorie, healthy diet. This is why it’s important to kick your sugar addiction and address weight gain and visceral fat formation early on, as opposed to letting the situation escalate.

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6 Risks of High Levels of Visceral Fat3. Makes It Harder to Lose Weight

People tend to get heavier and heavier as time goes on — and one of the main reasons is that stored body fat affects hunger levels, especially visceral fat. It might seem hard to imagine, but your metabolism is largely governed by your level of existing stored fat. Fat messes with our appetites and makes it easier to overeat due to hormonal changes that take place.

Higher levels of insulin also promote more efficient conversion of our calories into body fat, so this vicious cycle continues. Eating refined carbohydrates, as opposed to complex carbohydrates in their natural state like vegetables and fruit, can cause the body’s “set point” for body weight to increase.

Your “set point” is basically the weight that your body tries to maintain through control of the brain’s hormonal messengers. When you eat refined carbohydrates such as white flour and sugar, the fat-storing hormones are produced in excess, raising the set point and making it hard to follow a moderate-calorie, healthy diet. This is why it’s important to kick your sugar addiction and address weight gain and visceral fat formation early on, as opposed to letting the situation escalate.

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6 Risks of High Levels of Visceral Fat4. Higher Risk for Heart Disease and StrokesFat-generated inflammatory cytokines are the main contributors to heart disease

and other inflammatory disorders. When your body is inflamed, your liver becomes overwhelmed with cholesterol and toxins, which leads to plaque buildup in your arteries.Visceral fat is associated with an increased risk for cardiovascular disease markers like high triglycerides, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

According to a 2013 report done by the University Center Hospital of Quebec, visceral fat:Is

closely related to clustering cardio-metabolic risk factors. Hypertriglyceridemia; increased free fatty acid availability; adipose tissue release of pro-inflammatory cytokines; liver insulin resistance and inflammation; increased liver VLDL synthesis and secretion; reduced clearance of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins; presence of small, dense LDL particles; and reduced HDL cholesterol levels are among the many metabolic alterations closely related to this condition.

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6 Risks of High Levels of Visceral Fat5. More Likely to Battle Dementia

Results from a 2010 study done by the Department of Cardiology at Oita Red Cross Hospital in Japan found that elevated levels of visceral fat in non-dementia patients with type 2 diabetes is characterized by abnormal changes in hippocampus volume and insulin resistance. Other studies have also found that the higher someone’s waist-to-hip ratio, the higher the risk for small strokes, which are associated with declining brain function.

We still don’t know exactly how visceral fat and dementia are linked, but it’s believed it has to do with the hormone leptin, which is released by stored fat and has adverse effects on the brain, appetite regulation, learning and memory. Leptin and ghrelin are two of the most hormones to pay attention to in reference to losing weight naturally.

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6 Risks of High Levels of Visceral Fat6. Higher Likelihood to Have Depression and Mood Problems

A 2014 study conducted by Boston University School of Medicine found that depressive symptoms are associated with visceral adiposity in middle-aged adults. To examine the relationship between measures of adiposity (fat) and depression, researchers examined visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and depressive symptoms in 1,581 women (mean age 52.2 years) and 1,718 men (mean age 49.8 years).

After adjusting for age, body mass index, smoking, alcohol and other factors, results showed that higher levels of stored VAT translated to higher likelihood of experiencing depression. Like other studies show, VAT is a unique pathogenic fat that consists of metabolically active adipose tissue that interferes with healthy neurotransmitter function.

Depression is especially associated with greater fat storage in women, so it might be even more crucial for women to follow a depression-free diet. In a study of middle-aged women over 50 years old, visceral fat, but not subcutaneous belly fat or waist circumference, was related to depressive symptoms.

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Adiposity and InsulinResistance and Altered Glucose

Tolerance in Type 2 Diabetes

http://biochem4.okstate.edu/~firefly/Bioch205/sciencediabetes.htm

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Fig. 1. Model depicting the control of energy homeostasis and hepatic glucose metabolism by adiposity- and nutrient-related signals. Neuronal systems sense and respond to input from hormones such as insulin and leptin that are secreted in proportion to body energy stores and from the metabolism of circulating nutrients (such as glucose and FFAs). In response to this input, adaptive changes occur in energy intake, energy expenditure, and hepatic glucose production.

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Fig. 3. Neurocentric model linking obesity to the pathogenesis of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Reduced neuronal input from adiposity- or nutrient-related signals favors both positive energy balance and hepatic insulin resistance. As weight gain progresses to obesity, worsening insulin resistance increases the demand for insulin secretion. When combined with a ß-cell defect (which reduces insulin action in the brain and periphery), type 2 diabetes ensues.