 In a world where we are constantly surrounded by overprocessed, empty-nutrient foods, much of the U.S. is losing the “battle of the bulge.” The obesity epidemic is raging with 41.9 percent of all adults that are dealing with the impacts of obesity; adults in Black and Latino communities have the highest obesity rates at 49.9 percent and 45.6 percent respectively. Visceral belly fat accumulates around the abdominal organs deeper within the body and is linked to hypertension, diabetes, insulin resistance, cancer, and poor brain health. A poor diet with high intake of fatty foods and the wrong kind of carbohydrates (which includes refined sugars) and an inactive lifestyle provide the building blocks for an increase in visceral fat.
Your waist circumference is a good indicator of how much fat is deep inside your belly and surrounding your organs:
Weight gain at midlife predicts more neurological concerns. A preventable risk factor, obesity is associated with greater cognitive decline and increased risk of dementia. And given the present high rates of childhood obesity, it’s critical to recognize and address these risks at the earliest opportunity. High levels of visceral fat have been associated with volume loss in the brain’s hippocampus (the primary memory center of the brain) and other gray matter. Researchers in a study published in the journal Neurology report that the faster the hippocampal atrophy process, the faster the cognitive decline. Studies have found that people who were obese and had a high waist-to-hip ratio (a measure of belly fat) had on average slightly lower brain volumes compared with people who were a healthy weight. Specifically, belly fat was linked with lower volumes of gray matter, the brain tissue that contains nerve cells. A new study published online in August of this year in the journal Aging and Disease, “Visceral and Subcutaneous Abdominal Fat Predict Brain Volume Loss at Midlife in 10,001 Individuals,” showed that greater visceral and subcutaneous abdominal fat on abdominal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans predicted brain atrophy, especially in women. Study participants included 10,000 healthy adults aged 20-80 years, average age, 52.9 years with 52.8% men and 47.2% women. Researchers investigated the relationship between brain MRI volumes, as well as amyloid and tau uptake, on positron emission tomography (PET) scans, along with body mass index (BMI), obesity, insulin resistance, and abdominal adipose (fatty) tissue in a cognitively normal midlife population. As we’ve previously discussed, amyloid and tau proteins are thought to disrupt communication between brain cells. The volume of subcutaneous fat, or the fat under the skin, and visceral fat were measured using abdominal MRI; brain MRI measured the cortical thickness of brain regions affected by Alzheimer’s disease. PET was used to examine disease pathology in a subset of 32 participants, focusing on amyloid plaques and tau tangles that accumulate in Alzheimer’s disease. The study noted that higher amounts of both visceral and subcutaneous abdominal fat predicted lower total gray and white matter volume, as well as lower volume in the hippocampus, frontal cortex, and temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes. The researchers also found that a higher visceral to subcutaneous fat ratio was associated with higher amyloid PET tracer uptake in the precuneus cortex, the region known to be affected early by amyloid pathology in Alzheimer’s disease. This relationship was worse in women than men. Additionally, results showed that higher visceral fat measurements are related to an increased burden of inflammation in the brain. Inflammatory secretions of visceral fat, as opposed to potentially protective effects of subcutaneous fat, may lead to inflammation in the brain, one of the main mechanisms contributing to Alzheimer’s disease.  Obesity and “type 3” diabetes. There is solid correlation of obesity to risk of diabetes as well as to diabetes and declining brain health including an increased risk of dementia. Blood sugar dysregulation is intrinsically linked to neurodegeneration. Diabetes and pre-diabetes are linked to insulin resistance. Insulin resistance harms the brain by impairing neuronal function, altering levels of catecholamines, and promoting neuroinflammation. Catecholamines are the principal neurotransmitters that mediate a variety of the central nervous system functions, such as motor control, cognition, emotion, memory processing, and endocrine modulation. As illustrated in “The Diabetic Brain,” high levels of inflammatory chemicals called cytokines are associated with brain shrinkage and risk of dementia later in life. In recent years, the term “type 3 diabetes” has been used in health media and literature to refer to Alzheimer’s disease, since the neurodegenerative disease is linked to insulin resistance, which is the hallmark of type 2 diabetes, in the brain. Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease, is typically the result of lifestyle factors and genetics.  Tips for getting rid of visceral fat include:
The popularly known adage, “you are what you eat,” continues to be exemplified by the findings discussed here and in many, many other studies. We cannot stress enough the importance of making lifestyle modifications to ideally optimize the wellbeing of our brains and bodies. So, equip yourself with the power of knowledge and learn more about how you can invest in your own healthy future! We encourage you to visit our blog library for additional related reading and, as always, please reach out to our offices if we can help. “You are what you eat - so don’t be fast, cheap, easy, or fake.” – Unknown In health and healing, Dr. Suzanne Gazda References: Trust for America’s Health. State of Obesity 2023: Better Policies for a Healthier America. 2023. https://www.tfah.org/report-details/state-of-obesity-2023/ Crudele L, Piccinin E, Moschetta A. Visceral Adiposity and Cancer: Role in Pathogenesis and Prognosis. Nutrients. 2021;13(6):2101. Published 2021 Jun 19. doi:10.3390/nu13062101 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8234141/ Cleveland Clinic. Carbohydrates. 2021. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/15416-carbohydrates Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Health. The skinny on visceral fat. Retrieved 11/27/2023. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/gim/_documents/Faculty-Resource/The%20Skinny%20on%20Visceral%20Fat.pdf Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Childhood Obesity Facts. 2022. https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/childhood.html Hanseeuw, B. et al. Association of pathological and volumetric biomarker changes with cognitive decline in clinically normal adults: Harvard Aging Brain Study. Neurology. 2023. https://n.neurology.org/content/early/2023/11/15/WNL.0000000000207962 Miller, S. How Your Belly Fat Is Linked to Your Immune System. LiveScience.com. https://www.livescience.com/59405-omentum-belly-fat-immune-system.html Debette S, Beiser A, Hoffmann U, et al. Visceral fat is associated with lower brain volume in healthy middle-aged adults. Ann Neurol. 2010;68(2):136-144. doi:10.1002/ana.22062 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2933649/ Ozato N, Saitou S, Yamaguchi T, et al. Association between Visceral Fat and Brain Structural Changes or Cognitive Function. Brain Sci. 2021;11(8):1036. Published 2021 Aug 4. doi:10.3390/brainsci11081036. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8391376/#B4-brainsci-11-01036 Raji CA, Meysami S, Hashemi S, et al. Visceral and Subcutaneous Abdominal Fat Predict Brain Volume Loss at Midlife in 10,001 Individuals [published online ahead of print, 2023 Aug 28]. Aging Dis. 2023;10.14336/AD.2023.0820. doi:10.14336/AD.2023.0820 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37728587/ Gazda, S. Biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease. suzannegazdamd.com. 2022. https://www.suzannegazdamd.com/blog---long-covid/biomarkers-for-alzheimers-disease-a-revolutionary-tool Kobayashi K. Role of catecholamine signaling in brain and nervous system functions: new insights from mouse molecular genetic study. J Investig Dermatol Symp Proc. 2001;6(1):115-121. doi:10.1046/j.0022-202x.2001.00011.x https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11764279/ Alzheimer’s Association. Diabetes and Cognitive Decline. alz.org. 2023. https://www.alz.org/media/documents/alzheimers-dementia-diabetes-cognitive-decline-ts.pdf Bittman, M. Is Alzheimer’s type 3 diabetes? The New York Times. 2012. https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/25/bittman-is-alzheimers-type-3-diabetes/ Sanchez, R. The Diabetic Brain in Alzheimer’s Disease. 2019. https://www.amazon.com/Diabetic-Brain-Alzheimers-Disease-Resistance/dp/1732668701 Higuera, V. Diabetes insulin resistance. Everyday Health. 2019. https://www.everydayhealth.com/type-2-diabetes/insulin-resistance-causes-symptoms-diagnosis-consequences/ Stanhope KL, Havel PJ. Endocrine and metabolic effects of consuming beverages sweetened with fructose, glucose, sucrose, or high-fructose corn syrup. Am J Clin Nutr. 2008;88(6):1733S-1737S. doi:10.3945/ajcn.2008.25825D. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19064538/ Gazda, S. Sugar and the not-so-sweet news when it comes to our wellbeing. 2023. suzannegazdamd.com. https://www.suzannegazdamd.com/blog/sugar-and-the-not-so-sweet-news-when-it-comes-to-our-wellbeing Dorn, J. et al. Journal of Nutrition. 2003. https://jn.nutrition.org/article/S0022-3166(22)16028-1/fulltext Hairston KG, Bryer-Ash M, Norris JM, Haffner S, Bowden DW, Wagenknecht LE. Sleep duration and five-year abdominal fat accumulation in a minority cohort: the IRAS family study. Sleep. 2010;33(3):289-295. doi:10.1093/sleep/33.3.289. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2831422/ Baby, D. Top exercises for belly fat. WebMD.com. 2023. https://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/top-exercises-belly-fat Loenneke, J.P., Wilson, J.M., Manninen, A.H. et al. Quality protein intake is inversely related with abdominal fat. Nutr Metab (Lond) 9, 5 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1186/1743-7075-9-5.https://nutritionandmetabolism.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1743-7075-9-5#citeas Epel ES, McEwen B, Seeman T, et al. Stress and body shape: stress-induced cortisol secretion is consistently greater among women with central fat. Psychosom Med. 2000;62(5):623-632. doi:10.1097/00006842-200009000-00005. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11020091/
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AuthorDr. Suzanne Gazda, Integrative Neurology Archives
February 2024
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