Lower-Body Adiposity May Have Cardioprotective Effect

Much has been made about the health risks of different body shapes: pearversus apple. Research suggests that central, abdominal obesity is aparticular health risk. The apple-shaped male with a large gut comes to mind.Women tend to carry more weight on the lower extremities—the glutealregion and thighs. They also tend to have a lower risk of cardiovasculardisease, at least until menopause. When women get older, their risk of heartattack and other cardiovascular events rises, and they also tend to gain moreweight in the belly.

A group of researchers at University of Colorado Denver Health SciencesCenter sought to shed light on whether excess adiposity in the lowerextremities is less harmful than central adiposity, or whether it somehowexerts a protective effect on the cardiovascular system.

Geriatric-medicine researcher Rachel E. Van Pelt, PhD, and colleaguesevaluated 95 postmenopausal women, most of them 52–68 years of age. Allof the women were fairly healthy, nonsmokers, and not taking any hormone ortherapy for high lipids or diabetes. Participants underwent diagnostic imagingto determine whole-body and regional distribution of fat. Lab tests were doneto assess insulin resistance, lipids, andlipoproteins.

According to their analysis, controlling for trunk fat revealed a“favorable effect of leg fat” on insulin resistance, serumtriglycerides, and HDL cholesterol. These benefits vanish when women also haveexcess abdominal weight. These results may not apply widely, since the studywas limited to healthy older women. However, the authors point out that iflower-extremity fat has a cardioprotective effect, this could haveimplications for women undergoing liposuction or lipectomy.

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