Visceral Fat - What It Is and Why It's So Dangerous - DR

3/1/2017 Visceral
Fat: What It Is and Why It’s So Dangerous Dr. Axe
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Visceral
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3/1/2017 Visceral Fat: What It Is and Why It’s So Dangerous Dr. Axe
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Most people view body fat as relatively harmless and merely something we want to
banish to look and feel better, but did you know that certain types of dangerous fats that
are stored around your organs can also contribute to heart disease, dementia, cancer,
depression and many other diseases?
Stored excess body fat and obesity are actually more than just unsightly — they’re
downright dangerous, too. While it’s hard to imagine obesity and certain types of body
fat as inflammatory diseases of their own, that’s exactly what they are.
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
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“subcutaneous”
+
belly fat. It’s a form of gel-like fat that’s actually wrapped around major
organs, Recipes the liver,+pancreas and kidneys.
including
Healthy
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If you
+
have a protruding belly and large waist, that’s a clear sign you’re storing
dangerous + it’s most noticeable and pronounced in obese individuals,
visceral fat. While
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anyone
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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.
Carrying around excess visceral fat is linked with an increased risk for:
Coronary heart disease

Cancer
Stroke
Dementia
Diabetes
Depression
Arthritis
Obesity
Sexual dysfunction
Sleep disorders
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
Search forchemicals, also
articles, recipes, called cytokines, which leads to inflammation; at theNEWSLETTER
more... same
time, it interferes with hormones that regulate appetite, weight, mood and brain function.
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How Visceral
Healthy Recipes Fat+ Develops
Having + indicator of health, so your body tries to preserve this by
a lean belly is a key
Fitness
controlling + energy expenditure. To prevent dangerous fat buildup, the
your appetite and
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body basically works like an orchestra of chemicals that tells us when to eat and when
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we are full. This chemical feedback system, which is built on communication between
the brain and other major organs — a.k.a. the brain/body connection — is what’s
responsible for either keeping us at a healthy weight or making us more susceptible to
weight gain and visceral fat storage.
At the core of your weight, appetite and mood control are your blood sugar levels, which
are controlled largely by the hormone insulin. Insulin balances blood sugar levels by
bringing them down after we’ve eaten a high-carbohydrate or sugary meal. When we
digest food, our body breaks down sugar and starch molecules into simpler units called
glucose or fructose.
These simple sugars enter our bloodstream and trigger the release of insulin from the
pancreas, and then insulin has the important job of ushering blood sugar into cells
throughout our body. This process supplies us with energy for things like brain, tissue
and muscular function when it’s working properly.
At the same time, insulin also corresponds to body fat stores, including the visceral fat
stored deep within our bodies. This is why people often call insulin our “fat-storage
hormone.”
When there’s too much glucose in our bloodstream and our cells already have filled
glycogen stores, glucose is stored as fat. This happens a lot more quickly and easily
when consuming refined processed carbohydrates and sugary foods. Processed
starches, like white bread or white rice, along with high-sugar foods, are rapidly
converted into simple sugars that enter the bloodstream and trigger a larger release of
insulin from the pancreas. The result is usually weight gain, plus even more hunger,
which leads to continued overeating and a vicious cycle that makes it hard to stop
eating sweets.
The more often and longer that blood insulin levels remain high, the more likely a person
is to accumulate excess
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communicates with many other hormones needed for various functions, including those
made in the adrenal glands, such as the stress hormone cortisol, so abnormally high
Health +
levels and hormonal imbalances result in powerful urges to eat, mood changes, lack
of energy
Healthy and various other
Recipes + factors that contribute to disease formation.
Fitness +
Why is more fat stored as visceral fat in some people but not in others? Specific
mechanisms responsible +
Natural Remedies for proportionally increasing visceral fat storage include eating
too Shop
many calories (“positive energy balance”), sex hormones, cortisol production, growth
hormones and dietary fructose (sugar).
6 Risks of High Levels of Visceral Fat

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Makes It Harder to Lose Weight
People tend to get heavier
Health + 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
Healthy Recipes +
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
Fitness
takeNatural
place.Remedies +
Higher
Shoplevels 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.
4. Higher Risk for Heart Disease and Strokes

Fat-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
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5. More Likely to Battle Dementia

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A growing body of evidence points to the fact that there’s a strong link between obesity,
Healthy Recipes +
vascular disease, inflammation and cognitive decline, including dementia. In fact, it
seems that excess pounds
Fitness + on the body equates with less brain volume and, therefore,
poorer function
Natural into older+age.
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Research
Shop shows that people with the biggest bellies have a higher risk of dementia than
those with smaller bellies. This is even true even for people with excess belly fat but who
are overall at a normal weight! The bigger the belly (or a person’s waist-to-hip ratio), the
more negative impact felt on the brain’s memory center called the hippocampus. In fact,
many experts now feel that visceral adipose tissue (VAT) levels rather than BMI should
be considered as an important risk factor in the development of 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.
6. Higher Liklihood to Have Depression and Mood Problems

Since excess body fat is linked to hormonal changes, including those of serotonin,
galanin and other brain neurotransmitters, excess body fat can negatively impact your
mood.
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 thatforhigher
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recipes,ofmore...
stored VAT translated to higher likelihood of experiencing
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depression. Like other studies show, VAT is a unique pathogenic fat that consists of
metabolically active adipose tissue that interferes with healthy neurotransmitter function.
Health +
Depression +
is especially associated
Healthy Recipes 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
Fitness +
women over 50 years old, visceral fat, but not subcutaneous belly fat or waist
circumference, + to depressive symptoms.
was related
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Natural Ways to Get Rid of Visceral Fat

There still isn’t an easy way yet to determine how much stored fat is either visceral fat or
subcutaneous fat, since visible belly fat is a combination of both. CT scans can help
doctors determine the amount, but it’s still not perfect and not cost-effective as a means
of tracking month to month.
Instead of trying to figure out how much of your visible belly fat is visceral and how much
is subcutaneous, just realize that any big belly and large waistline poses a risk and is
unhealthy. Women with a waist circumference that’s more than 35 inches and men with a
waist circumference more than 40 inches are at increased risk for various diseases and
should try to lower fat stores as soon as they can.
Research suggests that when you diet, you mostly lose white fat, which is different than
visceral fat and tends to be lost or gained evenly all over the body. You’re more likely to
lose visceral fat when you do a combination of exercising and eating right — which are
both important for hormone regulation.
5 Steps to Lower Your Risk for Storing Visceral Fat

1. Reduce Sugar and Refined Carbohydrates
You already know that insulin is one of the body’s most important hormones — and our
diet directly controls our insulin release. Insulin plays the main role in our metabolism,
helping us usher energy from food into cells for energy. When a cell is normal and
healthy, it has a high level of receptors for insulin, so it has no problem responding to it.
But when a cell is exposed to high levels of insulin through an ongoing presence of high
glucose, theforsystem
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Too much insulin means cells start to do something to adapt: They reduce the number of
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insulin-responsive + which ultimately leads to insulin resistance. Because
receptors,
consuming
Healthy Recipes + carbohydrates and sugars spikes insulin, reducing them is
too many refined
the first step to rebalancing hormones naturally and reducing fat.
Fitness +
A little extra
Natural + midsection results in so much interference with insulin’s
fat around our
Remedies
effectiveness that it’s believed that two to five times as much insulin might be secreted
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in an overweight person than in a thin person! Using healthy natural sweeteners in
moderation, consuming plenty of fermented foods and increasing healthy fats can all
help you cut down on carbs and sugar.
2. Fill Up on Non-starchy Veggies, Fats and Proteins

The base of your diet should come from natural fat-burning foods that our species
evolved to eat. Of course, every person is somewhat different, so you can personalize
your diet made up of whole foods depending on your own unique combination of
genetics, health status, activity level, life circumstances and goals.
Overall, we want to aim to eat high-nutrient-dense, real foods. This means avoiding
packaged foods and the presence of artificial ingredients, toxins and antinutrients. We
also want to eat plenty of healthy fats, including coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil, wild-
caught fish, nuts and seeds that have beneficial effects on insulin balance, gut bacteria,
hormones and weight management. Additionally, proteins are also important for beating
hunger and reducing insulin spikes. Healthy proteins include wild fish, grass-fed beef,
cage-free organic eggs and raw dairy.
3. Exercise Regularly
There are loads of documented benefits of integrating physical activity throughout the
day and minimizing sedentary time. Exercise helps us balance insulin and makes our
cells more primed for using glucose. This is crucial considering that as more fat is
packed away on the body, it interferes with insulin uptake into our muscle tissues.
While different types of exercise can limit cardiovascular risk resulting from visceral
obesity in people with metabolic syndrome, a 2013 study published in The International
Journal of Cardiology found that high-intensity resistance training induced a faster
visceral fat loss in adults than moderate training. This means HIIT workouts and burst
training can help blast belly fat fast and most efficiently, but a combination of
resistance
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for articles, recipes, more... training also helps. Try whatever type works best for
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you and keeps you consistent, including burst training (especially effective for fat-
burning), weight training, HIIT workouts and so on.
Health +
4. Reduce Stress
Healthy Recipes +
TheFitness
importance of pleasure,+ play and social connection is often overlooked when it
comes to fat
Natural loss, but we +
Remedies know how important it is to bust stress in order to beat excess
fat. Stress triggers cortisol production and interferes with appetite control, metabolism,
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sleep and cravings.
Adaptogen herbs can help lower cortisol, while stress-reducing techniques like healing
prayer, meditation, exercise and reading are also beneficial. There are also benefits of
sun exposure (which go beyond vitamin D) and spending time outdoors for reducing
stress, so make sure to be active and spend time in nature some way ideally every day.
5. Prioritize Getting Good Sleep

The benefits of sleeping at least seven to eight hours a night (and minimizing exposure
to artificial light sources too, ideally) are well-documented when it comes to hormone
and weight control. Good rest resets our appetite and stress hormones, boosts our
metabolism, and keeps cravings away. To fall asleep fast and get more sleep, try using
relaxing essential oils before bed, take a bath, avoid excess caffeine and make sure you
sleep in a dark, cool room.
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3/1/2017 Visceral

Search for articles, recipes, more... NEWSLETTER

Search for articles, recipes, more... NEWSLETTER

What Is Visceral Fat?

Coronary heart disease

6 Risks of High Levels of Visceral Fat

2. Higher Risk of Diabetes

4. Higher Risk for Heart Disease and Strokes

is closely related to clustering cardio-metabolic risk factors.

5. More Likely to Battle Dementia

6. Higher Liklihood to Have Depression and Mood Problems

Search for articles, recipes, more... NEWSLETTER

Search for articles, recipes, more... NEWSLETTER

Search for articles, recipes, more... NEWSLETTER

Natural Ways to Get Rid of Visceral Fat

5 Steps to Lower Your Risk for Storing Visceral Fat

2. Fill Up on Non-starchy Veggies, Fats and Proteins

5. Prioritize Getting Good Sleep

Read Next: 15 Ultimate Fat-Burning Foods

Get FREE Access!

Free eBook to boost 30 Gluten-Free Shopping Guide &

Your Best Email Re g i s t e r F R E E TO DAY !

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20 Make-Ahead Freezer Meals that Are Hypopituitarism Symptoms, Causes & 8

Are High Heels Bad for Your Feet

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Acid Reﬂux Symptoms, Causes &

21 ‘Health’ Foods You Should Never Eat

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