With the rising tide of obesity and the prevalence of diabetes and heart disease in the United States, many people have become concerned about their elevator girls, who are often overweight or obese.
A recent study by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) revealed that almost 1 in 3 women are overweight or have obesity issues.
That number was higher among men than women, but it remained roughly the same for all age groups.
Now, a team of scientists is looking into how to help women with the obesity problem.
“We know that there are some very common health conditions in women, and one of the health issues that women often face is obesity,” said Dr. Linda Sondheimer, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University and the study’s lead author.
“But there’s a lot more that we don’t know about what happens to obese women.”
One way to help overweight or obesity women with their weight issues is to help them maintain a healthy weight.
“If we’re working with overweight women, we want them to maintain a reasonable body weight,” Sondheim said.
“If they’re obese, they may have problems maintaining a healthy body weight.”
Sondheimer and her colleagues were looking at data from more than 8,000 women in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a nationally representative survey of Americans.
NHANES participants were asked to weigh themselves every day.
Sondheim’s team looked at data on body composition, fat percentage, waist circumference, and body fat.
They also used a technique called magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure fat cells in women’s abdomens and the amount of fat tissue in the abdominal region.
“What we found was that obesity is correlated with a very high amount of adipose tissue,” Sessheimer said.
“The body fat is a large part of the fat in the abdomen, and it’s an important organ for metabolism.”
Sessheimer’s team found that obese women had higher levels of visceral fat — the fat inside the abdomen — than those who were normal weight.
In addition, obesity was linked to higher levels in fat cells inside the abdominal area.
“Obese women have a higher percentage of visceral adipose cells,” Sonderheimer said, adding that the adipocytes are more active than the adipose tissues of normal-weight women.
“In addition to having more visceral fat, obesity is associated with a higher body weight, a lower waist circumference and a lower body fat,” Sondingh said.
This is important because weight and body size are correlated, so it’s important to know how these associations can be reversed, she added.
Obese and obese women have more fat cells on their bodies than normal-size women, which is what makes them prone to obesity.
However, the fat cells of normal weight women also contain more adipocytes than the fat of obese women.
Sondsheimer said that these fat cells could help regulate the fat distribution in the body.
“When they’re able to make their own adipose fat cells, they can actually produce more adipose,” Sondsheimer explained.
“That adipose can actually go to fat cells.”
“We think it might be the fat cell that gives you the energy for energy-producing activities in your body,” Sondo said.
Sondo added that obesity may be linked to more insulin resistance, which can contribute to metabolic syndrome and diabetes.
Obesity and insulin resistance are both risk factors for diabetes, so treating the two problems can help obese women with diabetes.
“There’s a relationship between obesity and insulin sensitivity,” Sonde said.
Insulin resistance is a type of metabolic syndrome that is associated the obesity epidemic.
Insulin resistance also causes inflammation and insulin release, which causes weight gain.
Sonderheimer’s study found that the relationship between the two was particularly strong in obese women who had higher insulin sensitivity.
“It was not only that obese obese women were associated with higher insulin resistance; it was that their insulin sensitivity was associated with more insulin release,” Sossen said.
That insulin release can contribute more to the progression of obesity-related diseases, including type 2 diabetes.
The researchers say that their findings should be used in the prevention of diabetes, and Sondheys group is planning future research.
For overweight women who are obese and have insulin resistance issues, Sondhels team recommends that they get screened for diabetes and diabetes complications.
“You should be screened for these diseases because if you’re going to be diagnosed with diabetes or if you have diabetes complications, you might want to do the screening because that could lead to the identification of those conditions,” Sonsi said.
In addition, obese women should have a regular physical activity routine.
“Women who have a lot of weight loss and obesity issues, they should also get regular physical activities,” Sosin said.
According to Sondher, the only way to prevent obesity-associated health problems is to treat
