Fat: the enemy within
Delving deep into the body, doctors have witnessed first-hand the build-up of toxic visceral fat coating vital organs and find the sight hard to forget.
The build-up is actively giving off damaging chemicals and hormones that may be sowing the seeds of cancer and life-shortening diseases.
WA cardiologist Michelle Ammerer is among these doctors and she has joined the three-year, $9 million WA Health Department- funded anti-obesity LiveLighter campaign.
Run by the Heart Foundation WA and Cancer Council WA, it is trying to jolt West Australians out of growing complacency about weight gain and to commit to more exercise and a better diet.
“The first time I saw fat inside a body was when I was training as a doctor during the first abdominal operation I watched,” she said.
“By then you’ve learnt all the anatomy, so you expect to see the organs in place, but I was shocked to see the abdomen full of this yellow gelatinous mass which looked oily.
“It was the extent of the fat which was so shocking, knowing the effect it could have on those organs. That moment of realising that bodies store fat inside, not just what you can see on the outside, stayed with me.”
And the sabotaging effects this toxic fat has, laid down deep in the body and actively working against it, is now known to be long associated with an increased risk of coronary artery disease, stroke, heart failure, high blood pressure, blood clots on the lung, type 2 diabetes and cancer of the bowel, breast, kidney, womb, oesophagus and pancreas. Damage is done by fat coating organs giving off harmful and excessive levels of such hormones as oestrogen and also giving off such chemicals as cholesterol and triglycerides, which trigger a build-up that blocks arteries. Other chemicals emitted, called adenosines, can lead to inflammation and growth, which also increases the risk of cancer, warns Terry Slevin of the Cancer Council WA.
It’s still not yet clear, however, whether visceral fat is the initial or direct cause of these health complications, or whether it’s simply a symptom of another disorder affecting a wider range of body systems.
When cardiologist John O’Shea, Heart Foundation WA board president, recites this elevated waist circumference disease list to his patients, he says they are often surprised and taken aback.
“They have an idea that being overweight is not a very healthy thing but they do not necessarily know the details,” he said.
“There is now firm evidence that it may predispose them to heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer.
“And if they are gaining weight, it threatens to undo a lot of the progress we have made in improving population health in other respects, such as stopping smoking and better consciousness about blood pressure control and cholesterol control.”
He urged West Australians to act early, rather than wait until they were unwell and battling hard to curb their appetite, when it may be then too overwhelming or too late.
High body mass has now overtaken tobacco as the leading contributor for disease burden in WA, with other lifestyle factors, such as inadequate fruit and vegetable intake and lack of physical activity, also contributing a burden.
And the total direct cost of being overweight and obese in Australia is $58 billion annually, according to Access Economics.
Article source: http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/lifestyle/a/-/article/14138848/fat-the-enemy-within/
Share and Enjoy
Categories: Fat Loss Diary Tags: Access Economics, Michelle Ammerer, WA, West Australians
Spare tyre a threat to your organs
Rather than ignore that growing spare tyre of fat around your middle, anti-obesity experts from the Heart Foundation WA and Cancer Council WA are urging you to see it as a serious threat to your health and life expectancy, in the same way you would if smoking a cigarette.
As part of the new three-year, $9 million LiveLighter campaign they are using graphic medical videos and photos of visceral fat taken in recent months during operations on West Australians who are carrying extra kilos but are not yet obese.
A build-up of toxic visceral fat was a health threat to the 60 per cent of West Australians who had already ended up overweight or obese and to those who looked slim but ate “rubbish” and “didn’t exercise at all”, warned Heart Foundation WA chief executive Maurice Swanson.
Even age did not protect you, he said. He had been told that WA’s Raine Study, tracking the development of the State’s youth, had identified visceral fat being laid down in teenagers and those in their early 20s.
Cardiologist John O’Shea, Heart Foundation WA board president, confirmed there was no easy technique to inform everyone how much visceral fat they had on the inside, particularly if they looked healthy on the outside, but experts had come to rely on the telltale guideline of waist circumference and ideal weight. Costly high-tech MRIs could show visceral fat but were not suitable for this purpose.
Trying to simplify the matter, Mr Swanson wanted urgent action among those with a “grabbable gut”. He said this was actually an indicator of an unacceptably high level of toxic visceral fat inside the body already damaging health.
There was an answer, Mr Swanson said. A healthy portion- controlled diet and daily exercise of 45 to 60 minutes had been shown to reduce visceral fat, often even at a faster rate than the subcutaneous fat laid down under the skin.
Article source: http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/lifestyle/a/-/lifestyle/14138847/spare-tyre-a-threat-to-your-organs/
Share and Enjoy
Categories: Fat Loss Diary Tags: Maurice Swanson, Mr Swanson, West Australians
Fat: the enemy within
Delving deep into the body, doctors have witnessed first-hand the build-up of toxic visceral fat coating vital organs and find the sight hard to forget.
The build-up is actively giving off damaging chemicals and hormones that may be sowing the seeds of cancer and life-shortening diseases.
WA cardiologist Michelle Ammerer is among these doctors and she has joined the three-year, $9 million WA Health Department- funded anti-obesity LiveLighter campaign.
Run by the Heart Foundation WA and Cancer Council WA, it is trying to jolt West Australians out of growing complacency about weight gain and to commit to more exercise and a better diet.
“The first time I saw fat inside a body was when I was training as a doctor during the first abdominal operation I watched,” she said.
“By then you’ve learnt all the anatomy, so you expect to see the organs in place, but I was shocked to see the abdomen full of this yellow gelatinous mass which looked oily.
“It was the extent of the fat which was so shocking, knowing the effect it could have on those organs. That moment of realising that bodies store fat inside, not just what you can see on the outside, stayed with me.”
And the sabotaging effects this toxic fat has, laid down deep in the body and actively working against it, is now known to be long associated with an increased risk of coronary artery disease, stroke, heart failure, high blood pressure, blood clots on the lung, type 2 diabetes and cancer of the bowel, breast, kidney, womb, oesophagus and pancreas. Damage is done by fat coating organs giving off harmful and excessive levels of such hormones as oestrogen and also giving off such chemicals as cholesterol and triglycerides, which trigger a build-up that blocks arteries. Other chemicals emitted, called adenosines, can lead to inflammation and growth, which also increases the risk of cancer, warns Terry Slevin of the Cancer Council WA.
It’s still not yet clear, however, whether visceral fat is the initial or direct cause of these health complications, or whether it’s simply a symptom of another disorder affecting a wider range of body systems.
When cardiologist John O’Shea, Heart Foundation WA board president, recites this elevated waist circumference disease list to his patients, he says they are often surprised and taken aback.
“They have an idea that being overweight is not a very healthy thing but they do not necessarily know the details,” he said.
“There is now firm evidence that it may predispose them to heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer.
“And if they are gaining weight, it threatens to undo a lot of the progress we have made in improving population health in other respects, such as stopping smoking and better consciousness about blood pressure control and cholesterol control.”
He urged West Australians to act early, rather than wait until they were unwell and battling hard to curb their appetite, when it may be then too overwhelming or too late.
High body mass has now overtaken tobacco as the leading contributor for disease burden in WA, with other lifestyle factors, such as inadequate fruit and vegetable intake and lack of physical activity, also contributing a burden.
And the total direct cost of being overweight and obese in Australia is $58 billion annually, according to Access Economics.
Article source: http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/lifestyle/a/-/lifestyle/14138848/fat-the-enemy-within/
Share and Enjoy
Categories: Fat Loss Diary Tags: Access Economics, Michelle Ammerer, WA, West Australians
Toxic fat used to scare people into exercising
Two thirds of West Australians are either overweight or obese and according to Access Economics.
Graphic images of toxic fat will be broadcast into living rooms across the state in an attempt to convince audiences to put down their bowl of ice-cream or packet of potato chips.
From today, advertisements will be broadcast in a number of mediums as part of a joint campaign between the State Government, Heart Foundation and Cancer Council WA to encourage people to eat well, be physically active and maintain a healthy weight.
Two thirds of West Australians are either overweight or obese and according to Access Economics, obesity costs the country $58.2billion each year.
Campaign director Melanie Fienberg said the LiveLighter public education campaign would graphically portray the effects of being an unhealthy weight.
She said the messages such as getting 30minutes of physical exercise a day, eating smaller portions and including fruit and vegetables in diets were not new, but the way it was being told was.
“It’s a new approach; one that’s been tried with tobacco and road safety to great success,” Miss Fienberg said.
“Being overweight is becoming normalised and there is a sense of complacency, people don’t understand the link with chronic disease so we are trying to raise a sense of urgency,” she said.
Miss Feinberg said toxic fat, or visceral fat was fat that built up around vital organs in the body, when it is stored in the body it produces chemicals which can be toxic.
She said a good way of telling whether a person had toxic fat was by measuring the circumference of the waist.
A measurement of more than 80cm for a woman and 90cm for a man meant a person was probably overweight and at a higher risk of storing toxic fat and therefore at a higher risk of cancer and chronic disease.
For more information visit livelighter.com.au.
Article source: http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/toxic-fat-used-to-scare-people-into-exercising-20120624-20w5g.html
Share and Enjoy
Categories: Fat Loss Diary Tags: Access Economics, Melanie Fienberg, State Government, West Australians
Toxic fat scare tactic
Two thirds of West Australians are either overweight or obese and according to Access Economics.
Graphic images of toxic fat will be broadcast into living rooms across the state in an attempt to convince audiences to put down their bowl of ice-cream or packet of potato chips.
From today, advertisements will be broadcast in a number of mediums as part of a joint campaign between the State Government, Heart Foundation and Cancer Council WA to encourage people to eat well, be physically active and maintain a healthy weight.
Two thirds of West Australians are either overweight or obese and according to Access Economics, obesity costs the country $58.2billion each year.
Campaign director Melanie Fienberg said the LiveLighter public education campaign would graphically portray the effects of being an unhealthy weight.
She said the messages such as getting 30minutes of physical exercise a day, eating smaller portions and including fruit and vegetables in diets were not new, but the way it was being told was.
“It’s a new approach; one that’s been tried with tobacco and road safety to great success,” Miss Fienberg said.
“Being overweight is becoming normalised and there is a sense of complacency, people don’t understand the link with chronic disease so we are trying to raise a sense of urgency,” she said.
Miss Feinberg said toxic fat, or visceral fat was fat that built up around vital organs in the body, when it is stored in the body it produces chemicals which can be toxic.
She said a good way of telling whether a person had toxic fat was by measuring the circumference of the waist.
A measurement of more than 80cm for a woman and 90cm for a man meant a person was probably overweight and at a higher risk of storing toxic fat and therefore at a higher risk of cancer and chronic disease.
For more information visit livelighter.com.au.
Article source: http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/toxic-fat-scare-tactic-20120624-20w5g.html
Share and Enjoy
Categories: Fat Loss Diary Tags: Access Economics, Miss Feinberg, Miss Fienberg, West Australians