Liver Fat Vs Belly Fat

A new research conducted by nutrition researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, suggests that fat stored in the liver is more responsible for metabolic risk factors of diabetes, high triglycerides in the blood and the cardio-vascular disease, rather than body fat stored in a person’s belly.

Having too much fat in the liver is termed as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. According to an online report in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Early Edition), fat stored in a person’s liver leads to experiencing serious metabolism related problems like insulin resistance, thus affecting the ability of the body for metabolizing sugar. Such people also experience increase in the production of the fat particles in their liver which are secreted into the person’s blood stream, thus increasing the triglycerides level of the body.

For several years, it has been noted by the scientists that cardio-vascular and metabolic risks are greatly affected by where the fat is carried in the patient’s body. Increased fat in the belly of the person, termed as visceral fat, leads to increased risks of heart disease and diabetes.

Samuel Klein, MD, senior investigator says that data collected from several studies shows that the visceral fat is related to metabolic risks, leading to the notion that it can result in metabolic dysfunction. However, fat in liver is closely tracked with visceral fat. It has been found that excessive fat in liver, and not in belly, is mainly responsible for metabolic dysfunction.

Klein, the Danforth Professor of Medicine and Nutritional Science, is the director of the Division of Geriatrics & Nutritional Science, the Center for Applied Research Studies and Center for Human Nutrition of Washington University. According to him, most of the body fat, known as subcutaneous fat, is located below the skin and around 10% is present inside the person’s belly. Much smaller amounts of fat are also found in other organs such as muscle and liver.

Obese people who had normal or elevated amounts of fat in their liver were studied and compared in this study. All the subjects of the study were matched in terms of age, sex, percent body fat, degree of obesity and body mass index. By carefully evaluating these obese people who had different amounts of fat in their belly and liver, the team of Klein determined that excessive fat in a person’s liver leads to higher risks of metabolism related problems.

Elisa Fabbrini, MD, Ph.D., assistant professor of Medicine and the first author of the study said that it has not been exactly known that why some of the fats, like triglycerides, accumulate inside the muscle and liver of some people and not in others. But the data suggests that CD36, a protein, controls the transportation of the fatty acids in the blood stream to different tissues plays an important role in this.

Fatty acids are responsible to make fats called as triglycerides. Fabbrini, Klein and colleagues found in the study that people who had elevated fat in their liver had lower levels of CD36 in their fat tissue but higher in their muscle tissue.

Samuel Klein and Elisa Fabbrini say that changes in the CD36 activities may be responsible to divert circulating fatty acids away from the fat tissue and into the muscle and liver tissue, in which they get converted into triglycerides. Metabolic dysfunction can be the result of increased tissue uptake of the fatty acids.

According to Klein, obese people who do not have higher fat levels in their liver should get encouragement for losing weight, but people who have elevated fat in their liver are at higher risks of diabetes and heart disease. Such people should be treated properly to loose weight because losing even a few pounds will make big differences.

Klein says that fatty liver disease is absolutely reversible. Losing only a small amount of weight will remarkably reduce the content of fat in the liver. If you restrict calorie intake only for two days, a large reduction in the fat in your liver will take place and the liver insulin sensitivity will be improved.