What can arm fat indicate about your health?

For people over 50, measuring their arm fat can reveal important information about their bone quality.

What does the fat on our hands (arms) have to do with the health of our spine? And there it is again!

For people over 50, measuring arm fat can help identify which women and which men are at higher risk of vertebral fractures, new research suggests.

The study, presented in May at the European Congress of Endocrinology in Stockholm, Sweden, is the first to show that arm composition, and specifically fat content, is associated with bone quality and poor spine strength.

According to its great author education Eva Kassi, an endocrinologist and professor at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (EKPA), said the findings could help identify those at high risk and tailor exercise to their needs.

“This may mean that subcutaneous arm fat, which can be easily assessed even with a simple and inexpensive skin dipstick method, may be a useful indicator of vertebral bone quality and predict vertebral fracture risk,” he emphasizes.

For the study, researchers looked at 115 people — 14 men and 101 women — who didn’t have osteoporosis and had an average age of 62, looking at body fat and spine bone quality.

Spinal fractures are the most common fractures osteoporosis is a disease that causes loss of bone mass and bone density.

The researchers found that those with more body fat had lower bone quality in their spines, regardless of their body mass index (BMI). This is especially true of visceral fat (fat that surrounds our internal organs) and fat under the skin of the arms (arms).

In addition to increased visceral fat, an “apple” body type, i.e. fat concentration in the abdomen and stomach region, was associated with poor bone quality in the spine.

According to Professor Cassin, visceral fat is the most hormonally active part of body fat. It produces low-grade inflammatory cytokines (adipokines), so it makes sense that an increased inflammatory state would negatively impact overall bone quality.

However, according to Ms. Cassi, while the study is a good starting point for future research, larger studies with more participants should be conducted to confirm the link between arm fat and spine fracture risk, including younger people and more men.

Who is Eva Cassi?

Associate Professor Eva Kassi graduated from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Faculty of Medicine (APTh.) with “Excellent” grade. He specialized in Endocrinology at the Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism and Diabetes of the “G.GENNIMATAS” General Hospital of Athens. During the specialty training
Studied at Leiden University (LUMC), The Netherlands.

Dr. Kassi holds a PhD with “Excellent” from the Faculty of Medicine of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (EKPA). In 2006, he was elected a teacher at the Faculty of Medicine of EKPA, and since 2016, an associate professor of the Department of Molecular Endocrinology-Biochemistry at the Faculty of Medicine.
University of Athens.

Since October 2019, G.NA is the head of the Expert Center for Rare Diseases of Calcium and Phosphorus Metabolism of the 1st Pre-Teaching Pathological Clinic of G.NA “LAIKO”. He is a member of the Coordinating Committee of the Postgraduate Program “Metabolic Bone Diseases”. He is a member of its education committee and a member of the three-member steering committee of the Bone Section of the Hellenic Society of Endocrinology. He supervised a large number of PhD students and post-graduate students of EKPA.

His clinical work covers the treatment of all endocrinological diseases with a focus on rare endocrinological disorders of calcium and phosphorus metabolism, and his research interests include Metabolic Syndrome, Bone Metabolism and
Adrenal diseases.

He has a large number of clinical and basic research publications in prestigious international scientific journals of high impact, at the same time, he has been awarded both the National (Hellenic Society of Endocrinology) “N. Thalassinos”, “S. Pitoulis” awards for his research work. “Research in Clinical Endocrinology”, “Basic Research in Endocrinology”, “A Farmakiotis”), as well as the European Level (Endocrinology Meeting Grant of the European Endocrinology Society). ) is a member of the editorial board and a consultant to the editorial board of more than 30 international scientific journals.

His research project has attracted funding from International and Greek agencies (ESPA, GGET, University of Warwick, Medical School and University Hospitals of Coventry and Warwichshire, UK, etc.).

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