Fat in the Body
Eating too much fat, and having too much fat stored in the body, is related to 4 out of 5 factors that increase the chance of developing heart disease, diabetes, and stroke. These five factors, which together is called metabolic syndrome, are:
Visceral/abdominal obesity - fat build-up in the internal organs
Low HDL-cholesterol - high cholesterol in the blood
High triglycerides - fat in the blood
High blood pressure (obesity-induced hypertension [1])
High blood sugar
Having too much fat is dangerous because it disrupts the normal functions of organs as well as blood circulation.
Visceral fat
Visceral fat is fat that builds around the internal organs, such as kidneys, liver and the pancreas.
Fat is stored inside specialized fat-storing cells called white adipocytes. White adipocytes are found around the heart and internal organs (visceral fat), under the skin (subcutaneous fat), in the abdomen (abdominal fat), and inside bones (bone marrow fat). If the body needs to store more fat, the adipocytes become larger in size as they have larger fat droplets inside. In cases of severe obesity, more cells become forced to turn into adipocytes through a process called adipogenesis.
Excess fat can cause inflammation and cellular stress, so that cells in the organs cannot perform their proper functions (more details here). Having too much visceral fat in one organ usually means there is fat in other organs too. Because fat can damage more than one organ at once, it is important to prevent and burn up as much fat as possible before further complications and permanent damage arise.
Fat in the blood
There are two types of fat that float in the bloodstream and are transported between different parts of the body. They are cholesterol and triglycerides. During transport in the blood, high triglyceride and high cholesterol levels can lead to dangerous illnesses because fats do not dissolve in water or blood. Like oil droplets, they tend to join together and form larger clumps. These fatty clusters can get lodged in small blood vessels or build up in the walls of blood vessels. If blood vessels are blocked, the surrounding and downstream tissue cannot get oxygen or nutrients from the blood, leading to death of the tissue (e.g. nerve damage, stroke, heart disease).
A Common Misconception: Good and Bad Cholesterol
There are no good or bad types of cholesterol. LDL and HDL cholesterol measure the same type of fat, but the difference is measuring how much cholesterol is coming into the body (=LDL) versus how much cholesterol is being removed from the body (=HDL).
In simple terms, LDL and HDL cholesterol levels indicate where your body’s cholesterol is going overall. Having too much cholesterol in the bloodstream can be dangerous. On the other hand, cholesterol can be taken to the liver via the blood, where it is used to make bile or is removed from the body.
HDL-cholesterol are like packages of cholesterol that are headed to the liver, and LDL-cholesterol are packages headed into other tissues of the body via the bloodstream. High HDL-cholesterol indicates that cholesterol is being removed from the body, whereas high LDL-cholesterol levels indicate high amounts of cholesterol entering the body. Having a high LDL level as well as high HDL level may indicate that the body is getting a lot of cholesterol through the diet, but it is also getting rid of the cholesterol. A low HDL level, however, suggests that the body is not getting rid of cholesterol, and it is building up inside.
Seanol® can help with weight loss by blocking adipogenesis and increasing HDL cholesterol levels.
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Sources:
https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.116.305697