Shaped like an apple? If you're sporting a gut that rides out front like a basketball under your shirt, you're at higher risk for diabetes and heart disease.
But exactly why that protruding belly, known as metabolic syndrome, puts you at greater risk has been a bit of a mystery.
Now researchers say they've figured out what that mound is doing while you're sleeping: Migrating. To your liver.
Fatty substances called lipids drain directly to the liver, which is a key center of glucose and insulin metabolism. Once there the lipids may accumulate as triglycerides, a major form of fat, and throw some metabolic processes out of control.
"Our study found lipid release from abdominal fat was substantially elevated during the night, which may be a primary mechanism leading to insulin resistance, a strong risk factor for type 2 diabetes," said Lisa Nicole Harrison from the University of Southern California and lead author on the study, presented Monday at the American Diabetes Association 68th Scientific Sessions in San Francisco.
More and more Americans have abnormal deposits of fat in their livers, according to the diabetes association, making obesity responsible for an epidemic of liver disease. Studies have shown fatty liver disease is extremely common in people with type 2 diabetes.
Contact staff writer John Sullivan at 215-854-2473 or johnsullivan@phillynews.com. To see more of The Philadelphia Inquirer, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.philly.com. Copyright (c) 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
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