Daily HealthBeat Tip

Inside fat

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

We can see fat on our outside. But we also have fat we can’t see – called visceral fat – around organs in the belly. Increasing visceral fat increases the odds of excess weight, higher blood sugar levels, cholesterol problems, and high blood pressure. And this raises the risk of heart disease.

But Cris Slentz of Duke University Medical Center, who used imaging to check inside fat, says exercise works against inside fat. People who did no exercise gained fat; people who did some exercise gained none, and people who did more lost visceral fat.

"Thirty minutes a day most days – preferably all days of the week – people ought to be walking or doing some activity. We really do need this. Inactivity is just killing us." (nine seconds)

The study in the Journal of Applied Physiology was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: January 30, 2005

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