Could you have leptin resistance?

Leptin resistance causes you to keep fat around your belly and can lead to health problems.

If you’re like most Brits and Americans, you are struggling with at least a few extra pounds. And if you’re over 40, those extra pounds are probably accumulating with an unwelcome preference for your mid-section.

Spare-tire fat distribution is more than an unsightly annoyance. Fat that accumulates in your belly is extremely dangerous! That’s because it promotes the release of proinflammatory “cytokines” that seem to be involved in just about every age-related degenerative disease.

Abdominal obesity is a hallmark characteristic of metabolic syndrome, also known as “syndrome X,” or “pre-diabetes.” Metabolic syndrome is a constellation of insidious pathological processes that place you at significantly increased risk for heart disease, diabetes, cancer, stroke, and dementia.

Until very recently, there appeared little most people could do to significantly reduce excess abdominal fat. Fortunately, cutting-edge research has identified a potential reversible mechanism of both stubborn middle-aged weight gain and associated markers of metabolic syndrome such as high blood levels of glucose, LDL, and C-reactive protein.