Studies have shown that people who store more fat around their bellies than on their hips are more like to have cells that are resistant to insulin.
This puts them at high risk for high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attacks, strokes and premature death.
Why? Because storing fat in your belly causes you to store excess fat in your liver.
This gets in the way of one of the liver's vital functions: to remove insulin from your bloodstream after it has done its job of driving sugar into cells.
Additionally, your blood sugar rises after meals, but your pancreas is supposed to release just enough insulin to keep your blood-sugar level from rising too high.
But if your cells cannot respond to insulin adequately, your blood sugar rises too high, which causes your pancreas to release huge amounts of insulin.
The result is sugar sticking to your cells, and once there - it cannot get off.
The sugar eventually converts to a poison called sorbitol, which destroys the cells, damages nerves, arteries and other tissues throughout your body.
As if that's not bad enough, excess insulin triggers a response in your brain to make you eat more and acts on your arteries to cause heart attacks.
But that's not all.
Recent studies have revealed an alarming connection between abdominal obesity and the health of your brain.
What's the Link Between Bellies and Brains? According to a new clinical trial, the Kaiser study found the risk of developing dementia was 2.
3 times greater for men and women who were overweight and who had large a large belly.
Kaiser researchers studied 6583 US men and women who had their belly fat measured at the age of 40 to 45 and then some 36 years later 16% were diagnosed with dementia.
And the chance of developing dementia is 3.
6 times greater for those obese with large bellies.
Even people with normal weight but with belly bulge are twice as much at risk.
We have known for some time that a large belly and being overweight is associated with increased risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, cholesterol problems, stroke and diabetes but this was the first study to show a connection between mid-life abdominal fat and dementia.
So what is a healthy waistline? According to the World Health Organisation:
So go on, "Measure Up!" Kaiser study was published in February 2008 online edition of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
This puts them at high risk for high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attacks, strokes and premature death.
Why? Because storing fat in your belly causes you to store excess fat in your liver.
This gets in the way of one of the liver's vital functions: to remove insulin from your bloodstream after it has done its job of driving sugar into cells.
Additionally, your blood sugar rises after meals, but your pancreas is supposed to release just enough insulin to keep your blood-sugar level from rising too high.
But if your cells cannot respond to insulin adequately, your blood sugar rises too high, which causes your pancreas to release huge amounts of insulin.
The result is sugar sticking to your cells, and once there - it cannot get off.
The sugar eventually converts to a poison called sorbitol, which destroys the cells, damages nerves, arteries and other tissues throughout your body.
As if that's not bad enough, excess insulin triggers a response in your brain to make you eat more and acts on your arteries to cause heart attacks.
But that's not all.
Recent studies have revealed an alarming connection between abdominal obesity and the health of your brain.
What's the Link Between Bellies and Brains? According to a new clinical trial, the Kaiser study found the risk of developing dementia was 2.
3 times greater for men and women who were overweight and who had large a large belly.
Kaiser researchers studied 6583 US men and women who had their belly fat measured at the age of 40 to 45 and then some 36 years later 16% were diagnosed with dementia.
And the chance of developing dementia is 3.
6 times greater for those obese with large bellies.
Even people with normal weight but with belly bulge are twice as much at risk.
We have known for some time that a large belly and being overweight is associated with increased risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, cholesterol problems, stroke and diabetes but this was the first study to show a connection between mid-life abdominal fat and dementia.
So what is a healthy waistline? According to the World Health Organisation:
- men should be 102cm or less
- women 89 cm or less.
So go on, "Measure Up!" Kaiser study was published in February 2008 online edition of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.