Having too much fat around the middle may compromise bone health and raise the risk of osteoporosis in women, a new study has found.Previous research has suggested that obesity guarded women against the disease because extra body fat seemed to protect against bone loss.
Doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital studied 50 premenopausal women with an average body mass index of 30. Their bone marrow fat and bone mineral density were measured to determine their bone mass and loss.
The researchers were looking at the impact of visceral fat, the kind that lies well below the muscle tissue in the stomach, versus subcutaneous fat, which is located just under the skin, to see whether there was a difference in osteoporosis risk depending on what kind the patients had more of.
Diet and exercise factor in to the amount of visceral fat the body stores, as do genetics. Visceral fat is considered the more dangerous type because too much of it has been linked to a heightened risk of heart disease.
The imaging tests the participants underwent showed that those with more visceral fat also had more bone marrow fat and less bone mineral density, meaning they had a greater chance of developing osteoporosis.
There was no significant link between the amount of subcutaneous or total fat and bone marrow fat or bone mineral density, according to the findings.
"Our results showed that having a lot of belly fat is more detrimental to bone health than having more superficial fat or fat around the hips," lead author Dr. Miriam A. Bredella, a radiologist at Massachusetts General and an assistant professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School, said in a statement.
But one physician who specializes in women's health says there are other explanations for the fact that those with more visceral stomach fat seemed to have poorer bone health.
"The people who consume the most carbohydrates and saturated fats are the ones who are going to be the most obese, and they're also the ones who are the most likely not to exercise," Dr. Leanne M. Chrisman, a family medicine doctor at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Ohio, told AOL Health. "Weight-bearing exercise is associated with improved bone marrow densities. A lack of exercise is associated with being obese and low bone mass."
She also said that the more visceral fat you have, the harder it is for you to absorb nutrients that are crucial for good bone health, like calcium and vitamin D.
"I don't think it's a direct cause and effect [between visceral abdominal fat and osteoporosis risk]," she said. "They're not showing you how it's linked; they're just saying that this is true and this is true. But I think it is related."
About 72 million adults in the United States are obese, which is defined as having a BMI of 30 or more, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Obesity has been tied to many serious health conditions, including heart disease, diabetes, high cholesterol and blood pressure, asthma and a host of other illnesses.
"We know that obesity is a major public health problem," said Bredella. "Now we know that abdominal obesity needs to be included as a risk factor for osteoporosis and bone loss."
About 10 million American women suffer from osteoporosis, and another 18 million have low bone mass, a risk factor for the disease, according to the National Women's Health Information Center.
"It is important for the public to be aware that excess belly fat is a risk factor for bone loss, as well as heart disease and diabetes," said Bredella.
Though women are more often plagued by bone loss than men, Bredella and her colleagues are currently studying whether too much stomach fat is also linked to more bone loss in men.
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