The women were asked to recall the events in their lives which were stressful

Extra belly fat along with a stressful life may be increasing the likelihood of you suffering from type 2 diabetes. A study done in America which was restricted to African American women shows that a significantly greater proportion of these women suffered from diabetes if they were both stressed and had fat on their bellies.

The importance of this research is that while it is commonly known that obesity is very much a risk indicator for type two diabetes the link with stress has not been properly examined. Dr Anastasia Georgiades from Duke University Medical Centre in North Carolina said that “stress may be as important” as obesity in this section of the American population.

Dr Georgiades and colleagues came to their conclusions after subjecting a group of 62 African American women not suffering from diabetes to something called an emotional stress test. The women were asked to recall the events in their lives which were stressful and the researchers noted their blood sugar and epinephrine levels. Epinephrine is sometimes called the ‘fight or flight’ hormone as it is released by the body when it is under stress.

The researchers saw that the women who had high epinephrine levels and high levels of belly fat had higher blood sugar levels when subjected to the stress test. Having high blood sugar levels is known to be a risk for the onset of diabetes as well as for heart disease.

The researchers saw that when the African American women only had one of either belly fat or high stress they did not suffer from the same elevated levels of blood sugar the reducing the likelihood of developing diabetes.

The research which was presented to the annual conference of the American Psychosomatic Society will not surprise scientists who understand how epinephrine functions in the body. If you are overweight and stressed you should take steps to lose weight or chill out.