How Your Belly Flab Endangers Your Health

You may dislike your belly flab. It gets in the way of your fashion sense and defeats your days at the beach. But did you know your fat tummy is actually conspiring against your health?

It's not just a sign of poor health. It actually helps to keep you unhealthy.

Researcher Claire Steppan and her team at the University of Pennsylvania found that not only is belly fat a sign of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, it actually makes these problems worse. Unlike fat on the thighs or butt, belly fat seems to produce a hormone that Steppan's team labeled "resistin." Resistin actually increases your cells' resistance to insulin and reduces your ability to metabolize blood sugar properly. 

How does that affect your health? Insulin is the hormone that helps your body move sugar, or glucose, from your blood into your cells. A lack of response to insulin, or the inadequate production of this hormone, can lead to type 2 diabetes.

Belly fat (or a larger waist circumference) is one of the top risk factors for a heart attack. Other risk factors include:

• Insulin resistance or high blood glucose levels
• Low HDL ("good") cholesterol and high triglycerides in the blood
• High blood pressure

This cluster of risk factors has become known as metabolic syndrome and approximately 1 out of every 3 adults has this.

The scary thing about metabolic syndrome is that most of the risk factors are hard to detect.

• Can you feel that your blood pressure is high?
• Do you know your cells don't respond to insulin well or that you don't have a normal blood sugar level?
• Can you see the cholesterol and triglyceride levels in your blood?

Probably not. Most of these risk factors are not ones that you can easily see, feel, or touch. You have to have tests to see what your numbers are and to see that you are at risk.

However your belly. . .that's another story. Your belly is the big red flag telling you to talk to your doctor about these tests. And to take the results seriously.

And it's a visible reminder - once you do get your test results and make a plan of action - to change those numbers. It tells you, "Don't give up - your life is at stake."

So don't dismiss your belly flab as just another inconvenience or simply the result of getting older. It's a warning sign for you to make some changes.