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Article: Increase in visceral fat during menopause linked with testosterone.
- Article from:
- NewsRx Health & Science
- Article date:
- September 13, 2009
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In middle-aged women, visceral fat, more commonly called belly fat, is known to be a significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease, but what causes visceral fat to accumulate?
The culprit is likely not age, as is commonly believed, but the change in hormone balance that occurs during the menopause transition, according to researchers at Rush University Medical Center.
"Of all the factors we analyzed that could possibly account for the increase in visceral fat during this period in a woman's lifetime, levels of active testosterone proved to be the one most closely linked with abdominal fat," said Imke Janssen, PhD, assistant professor of preventive ...