Daily HealthBeat Tip

Smaller fat cells

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

People with plump fat cells � especially on the belly � have a higher risk of diseases such as diabetes. So it makes sense to have smaller fat cells. The question is how to do it.

Barbara Nicklas and colleagues at Wake Forest University School of Medicine looked into that. They had some women diet, and others diet and exercise by walking. The study in the International Journal of Obesity was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Nicklas says all the women lost weight. But she says adding exercise made a difference � those women had smaller fat cells on their bellies.

"It's important to add exercise to a diet program if women really want to reduce the size of their abdominal fat cells for the specific reason of reducing their risk for diabetes." (12 seconds)

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: October 26, 2006

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