Belly Fat and Long Life

So in the search for healthy longevity, Barzilai studies the effects of abdominal or visceral fat on lifespan in rats. That's because mounting evidence shows that fat around the internal organs is worse for your health than other types of fat, as it is associated with health problems like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure.

As compared to the first group, the calorically restricted rats lived 40 percent longer, and the rats that had some of their abdominal fat removed lived 20 percent longer.

"So this suggests that the fat tissue itself is an important component of what happens in caloric restriction," says Barzilai. Additionally, the rats whose abdominal fat was removed experienced a significant reduction in the occurrence of severe renal disease.

Barzilai's previous studies in rats showed that surgical removal of abdominal fat improved their health, but removing the fat under their skin by liposuction did not.

He says, "Interestingly, there is also a study in humans where they did only the fat with liposuction, and it really didn't have measurable metabolic effects. So what we see in rats is kind of similar to what we see in humans."

Barzilai says that as of right now, surgical removal of abdominal fat in people is experimental and that the real focus of his research is to find drugs to change the distribution of fat.

Publication: Aging Cell, June 2008
Research funded by: National Institutes of Health and the Core laboratories of the Albert Einstein Diabetes Research and Training Center