Do you have a fat belly in your 20s? Study: Too much visceral fat in young people's blood vessel walls may lead to premature GG
Is it possible that young people also have arteriosclerosis? Is fat belly hiding visceral fat the culprit?
Do you have a “fat belly” at a young age? Beware that the risk of developing arteriosclerosis and cardiovascular disease in the future is higher than others! Abdominal obesity is considered to be closely related to visceral fat accumulation and is also a high-risk group for stroke and heart disease. A recent study on children, adolescents, and young adults found that severely obese young people are more likely to accumulate visceral fat and have higher arteriosclerosis scores, indicating that abdominal fat may cause cardiovascular complications in adolescents and even children.
This study, published in “Pediatric Obesity”, collected more than 600 young subjects aged 10-23 years old, used dual-energy X-ray equipment (DXA) to measure their visceral fat, and assessed the subjects’ “pulse wave velocity” " (PWV), pulse wave propagation velocity refers to the speed at which blood sent by the contraction and relaxation of the heart passes through blood vessels to peripheral parts such as hands and feet. The larger the number, the harder the blood vessel wall is. When the PWV value is greater than 1400 cm/sec, the possibility of suffering from coronary artery disease is higher.
The research team found that obese young people had significantly more visceral fat and higher pulse wave velocity values than healthy-weight young people. In subjects whose body fat rate is obese and whose BMI value exceeds the healthy standard, a positive correlation between visceral fat and pulse wave propagation rate can be seen. Research indicates that this may be a reference indicator to determine whether adolescents will develop obesity and metabolic-related diseases.
Research suggests that visceral fat may be the cause of clinical cardiovascular complications in adolescents. In the future, long-term studies must be conducted on obese young adults to determine the interaction between visceral fat and cardiovascular disease at various stages throughout their lives.
Cardiovascular problems are like a domino effect, which will also affect the burden on various systems of the body.
Joseph Kindler, corresponding author of the study and professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Georgia, said that the higher the degree of arteriosclerosis, the greater the speed and pressure of blood flow through blood vessels, making it easier to cause damage to cardiovascular diseases. Such changes are like dominoes, which will increase the burden on various systems of the body and cause different health problems.
Among them, the pulse wave velocity associated with arteriosclerosis is a key indicator, which makes adolescents and children more susceptible to cardiovascular disease, especially in these young people with high BMI values.
Professor Kindler said that the number of young people and children being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes is gradually increasing around the world, and obesity is one of the most important risk factors. Among the subjects in this study, 145 were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, which is close to a quarter.
Kindler pointed out that diabetes and metabolic syndrome are becoming more common in young people. If these diseases occur at a young age or during growth and development, they may cause the body system to degenerate at a faster rate, affecting the brain, kidneys, liver, bone density and other problems. In all three groups of research subjects, it was found that visceral fat was related to the pulse wave propagation rate, but subcutaneous fat did not seem to be significantly related to the pulse wave propagation rate.
Wei Shen, a professor at Columbia University’s New York Nutrition Research Center, believes that the most accurate measurement of visceral fat is using MRI. If the visceral fat value is measured by MRI, the value of this study will be more credible. In addition to DXA, under normal circumstances, waist circumference is still a good indicator of visceral fat. It is recommended that both men and women should control their waist circumference within a healthy range.
source:
〈Visceral fat and arterial stiffness in youth with healthy weight, obesity, and type 2 diabetes〉
