Al-Marsad Newspaper: Health experts explained that the external appearance of the body may tell us a lot about our internal health, based on the pattern of the skeletal structure and the distribution of muscles and fats in the body.
Apple shape
And if you have an “apple” shape, for example, where the stomach protrudes, that could be a sign of too much visceral fat stored around the internal organs.
Healthdirect Australia, the virtual public health information service, warned that the apple-shaped object was likely to contain ‘toxic’ chemicals and hormones. Experts noted that “visceral fat produces more toxic substances than subcutaneous fat.”
Diseases associated with the apple-shaped body
Being biologically active, high levels of visceral fat have been linked to conditions such as high blood pressure, obesity, insulin resistance, cancer, asthma, gout, osteoporosis and lower back pain, among others.
For women, the risk of chronic disease increases if the waist circumference is 80 cm or more. For men, their physical health is at risk if they have a waist of 94 cm or more.
“Visceral fat pumps out immune system chemicals called cytokines,” explained experts at Harvard Medical School.
Examples include tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin-6, which “increase the risk of cardiovascular disease”.
Visceral fat is directly associated with higher total cholesterol and LDL (bad) cholesterol, lower HDL (good) cholesterol and insulin resistance.”
body shapes
However, there are other body shapes to be aware of: pear, hourglass, inverted triangle, and rectangle.
While some consider the apple-shaped body to be more dangerous, there is mixed research on other body shapes.
“No matter what you look like, the key is to maintain a healthy weight, eat healthy foods and stay active,” the experts noted.