Adult-Onset Diabetes Tied to Abdominal Fat

Belly fat may be a bigger culprit than advancing age in the development of adult-onset diabetes, researchers report.

And that is actually good news, said Wendy Kohrt, research assistant professor at Washington University School of Medicine and principal investigator of the study of 67 older men and women. You can’t avoid getting old, but there are ways to get rid of the fat.

The study was published in the February edition of Diabetes, a publication of the American Diabetes Assn.

The body’s inability to regulate blood sugar is known as glucose intolerance. The condition occurs when the body becomes resistant to the action of insulin, the hormone responsible for moving sugar from the blood into the muscles, where it is stored for energy.

With advancing age, Kohrt said, insulin isn’t as effective in controlling blood sugar, so sugar levels remain high for longer periods. To offset those high levels, the body often compensates by secreting more insulin, which could make the body insulin-resistant and lead to adult-onset diabetes.

There are other factors, however, and the study noted that one of the common characteristics of getting older is a tendency toward developing a potbelly.

“What we find with aging is that there is a disproportionate accumulation of fat in trunk regions of the body,” Kohrt said. “Some of this excess fat is stored just under the skin, but much of it is stored internally, in the visceral region of the abdomen.”

The study, Kohrt said, found that older people with high concentrations of belly fat had more blood sugar problems than people of similar age who had stayed trim.