Bless you
Deadly fat: This is how a big belly makes menopausal women sick
Fat on the stomach is unhealthy – but women suffer particularly badly from it. During menopause, you tend to store more fat in the middle of your body.
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Due to changes in the hormonal balance, women over the age of 45 store more fat on their stomachs. Unfortunately, it is particularly unhealthy there – and can trigger numerous diseases, especially in women.
Many women are familiar with the problem: from around the age of 45 they develop a belly. The menopause is to blame. The hormonal change is a deep cut in the life of every woman. Men have it better there, they don’t have to go through such radical changes. Before and during the menopause, the male hormone testosterone gradually takes over and the level of the female hormone estrogen decreases. This phase of change lasts an average of seven years. It is associated with hot flashes, mood swings, irregular bleeding, sleep disorders and a redistribution of fat on the female body.
The last factor in particular has far-reaching consequences for women’s health. Now women are losing muscle and bone mass, there is not only an increase in fat, but also a redistribution – cushions on the hips and buttocks are disappearing, abdominal fat is increasing. The figure is rebuilt from “pear” to “apple” shape. As a science editor, I have dealt intensively with the topic over the past few years and of course I am familiar with the studies and figures on stomach, fat and health. Women in Germany have an average waist circumference of 90 centimeters. And especially in old age, women increase significantly in size. That is very dangerous. Females should not be more than 80 centimeters. Every centimeter increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. There is even a connection between waist circumference and cancer. Belly fat apparently triggers processes in the body that make us ill. Long before the body mass index (BMI) indicates overweight.
The body mass index is a useless value
The BMI, it is becoming increasingly clear, is a rather useless value. Because fat is not just fat. Whether it harms us depends on where on the body we carry it. Above all, the stomach triggers a real tsunami of diseases. Because the fat lying deep in the abdominal cavity is now regarded as a separate organ in medicine – it may even be the largest human organ at all. It has long been underestimated. It’s not nearly as sluggish as it might seem at first glance. If it is on the stomach, it sends “bad” messenger substances into the bloodstream around the clock. It is an endocrine organ that can damage the heart and circulatory system. Yes, you can say: it is slowly and silently killing us from the inside.
Why?
On the one hand, there is the location and the proximity to the liver, which are particularly dangerous. The blood flow from the fat hits the filter organ directly. And via the large portal vein, pro-inflammatory substances such as the protein cytokine quickly reach the hepatic circulation and all other organs. The consequences are profound. For several years, doctors have been registering that more and more people are suffering from fatty liver that is not caused by alcohol. According to studies, almost every third adult in industrialized countries today has a pathologically fatty liver. If the liver has to absorb more fat than it can process and store, additional fat is deposited in the liver tissue. Liver cirrhosis and liver cancer are often the result. If the organ is chronically inflamed, the substances flushed out of it into the body dramatically increase the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. And as we now know from studies: the risk increases particularly sharply in women.
Belly fat causes inflammation
According to one in the respected science magazine “Nature” In a published study, the newly stored fat on the abdomen causes increased inflammatory activity in the body in women. Incidentally, this also happens when the scales are far from showing overweight. Because before the fat becomes visible as the abdomen, it can slowly and invisibly form in accumulate in the abdominal cavities.In medicine, this is referred to as slim fat people.
People who are overweight often have permanently elevated levels of inflammation. If abdominal fat gets the upper hand, the body’s repair mechanisms no longer function. The good messenger substances and the immune system can no longer alleviate or slow down the inflammation. In this case, doctors speak of meta-inflammation. You can think of it like little fires blazing all over the body. The insidious thing: This chronic inflammation usually does not cause any symptoms – but is considered to be an important trigger for serious illnesses. According to University of Pittsburgh study from last year, women who gain abdominal fat during menopause have a clear connection to existing cardiovascular diseases.
The middle of the body changes for the majority of women
“About 70 percent of postmenopausal women have abdominal obesity,” says Saad Samargandy, one of the authors of the study. And: “We have seen an increase of about eight percent per year.” Accurately identifying belly fat is very difficult. Even body fat scales do not show, for example, where the fat is on the body. However, a simple inventory can be made with a tape measure. The imprecise BMI should now be replaced by two more accurate readings. For example, there is the waist-to-height ratio. For this purpose, the waist circumference is divided by the height. For people under 40 years of age, the ideal value is a maximum of 0.5 – for everyone over 50 years of age it is 0.6. The waist-to-hip ratio also takes fat distribution into account: Here, the waist circumference is divided by the hip circumference. For women, the value should be less than 0.85 (for men less than 0.9).
Menopause is a deep turning point
If the values are higher, women should urgently take countermeasures. On the one hand, this is done through nutrition – without having to do without it. Because, as we now know very well, in the vast majority of cases, diets only make you fatter in the long term. Researchers at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University in Be’er Sheva were able to prove in a long-term study that the so-called Mediterranean diet with lots of fresh vegetables, legumes, fish, olive oil and little meat is the best way to combat dangerous belly fat. Above all, the measured values showed that the liver, heart and pancreas were relieved of dangerous fats to a far greater extent with this type of diet.
In addition, abdominal fat can be combated very well through physical activity. Above all, so-called HIIT training proved to be particularly effective. The abbreviation stands for High Intensity Interval Training, a circuit training in which phases of concentrated exertion alternate with short breaks. In overweight people, this has a particularly positive effect on the cardiovascular system and blood sugar levels. Body fat is also reduced above average compared to other forms of exercise. But HIIT demands a lot from the heart and joints. It is therefore essential to check with a doctor beforehand whether you are healthy enough for this.