Smoking Could Increase Dangerous Belly Fat Rather Than Promote Weight Loss, Study Suggests

A new study suggests that smoking could increase body fat that is associated with serious disease.

Smoking and Fat

The "Estimating causality between smoking and abdominal obesity by Mendelian randomization" study found that starting smoking and smoking for a lifetime were both linked to higher abdominal fat. Further analysis also revealed that the increase could be that of visceral fat.

Visceral fat is not visible. It covers the organs in the abdomen. It is healthy and normal for such type of fat to account for 10% of the total body fat of one's body. However, excessive visceral fat could result in inflammation and contribute to chronic illnesses.

According to epidemiologist Dr. Germán Carrasquilla, the study's lead author and an assistant professor from Karolinska Institute, the fat's location and interaction with the functions of the body make it quite dangerous. Such fat has been strongly associated with type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and other kinds of metabolic conditions.

Dr. Carrasquilla adds that the findings reveal the need for vast efforts to reduce and prevent smoking.

The authors made use of Mendelian randomization, which is a statistical analysis method that utilizes genetic differences to examine how environments and behaviors could lead to various health outcomes. Dr. Carrasquilla explains that by looking into genetic data, they could infer causal relationships.

Though the study offers significant evidence that the two factors, smoking and higher belly fat, have a causal and not just correlational association, it still remains indefinite. This is according to Naveed Sattar, who is a cardiometabolic medicine professor at the University of Glasgow and who did not participate in the study.

Dr. Andrew Freeman, who is the director at the National Jewish Health's cardiovascular prevention and wellness, explains that confounding elements could be present. These elements could possibly strengthen the link between belly fat and smoking. Dr. Freeman also adds that bad habits usually move together.

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Cigarette Smoking

According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, smoking could result in disability and disease and could harm almost all of the organs in the body.

Over 16 millions Americans have conditions that are caused by smoking. The practice can lead to heart disease, cancer, stroke, lung disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and diabetes. Smoking also heightened risk for some eye diseases, tuberculosis, and immune system problems.

As for secondhand exposure to smoke, this accounts for around 41,000 deaths among adults who do not smoke and 400 among infants every year. Secondhand smoke could cause lung cancer, stroke, and coronary heart disease among adults. As for children exposed to secondhand smoke, they have a higher risk for acute respiratory infections, sudden infant death syndrome, middle ear disease, respiratory symptoms, middle ear disease, and slowed growth of the lungs.