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This week on Health Watch, we’re talking about research into obesity, and health conditions related to it. What if many of the problems associated with obesity aren’t because of the amount of fat, but rather because of where the fat is stored?
That’s what researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center recently discovered. A glut of a key hormone allowed laboratory mice to eat as much as they wanted and gain excess weight without developing insulin resistance or diabetes. The hormone meant that mice stored excess calories in fat tissue instead of in the liver, heart or muscle tissue, where it causes damage. Dr. Philipp Scherer says this discovery doesn’t mean it’s okay to gain weight. But researchers will work on finding ways to make the body store weight in “good” places instead of in more damaging places.
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September 2007
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