Is insulin resistance the driving cause of metabolic syndrome    From
" Metabolic syndrome- don't blame the belly fat." Abdominal fat, the
spare tire that many of us carry, has long been implicated as a
primary suspect in causing the metabolic syndrome, a cluster of
conditions that includes the most dangerous heart attack risk factors:
prediabetes, diabetes, high blood pressure, and changes in
cholesterol.

But with the help of powerful new imaging technologies, a team of
Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers at Yale University
School of Medicine has found that insulin resistance in skeletal
muscle leads to alterations in energy storage that set the stage for
the metabolic syndrome.

Insulin resistance is a condition in which the body's cells become
resistant to insulin, a hormone secreted by the pancreas that plays an
essential role in regulating the carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins
obtained from food.

The new study, published July 16, 2007, in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), demonstrates that insulin
resistance in skeletal muscle -- caused by decreased ability of muscle
to make glycogen, the stored form of carbohydrate from food energy --
can promote an elevated pattern of lipids or fats in the bloodstream
that underpins the metabolic syndrome.

The study was led by HHMI investigator Gerald I. Shulman and Kitt Falk
Petersen, both of the Yale University School of Medicine. Coauthors of
the paper were from Yale and Harvard Medical School.

The metabolic syndrome is a very common metabolic abnormality and the
prevalence is growing. However, the underlying factors that cause it
are poorly understood." The syndrome afflicts more than 50 million
Americans and roughly half of all Americans are predisposed to it,
making it one of the nation's most serious human health issues.

To begin to shed light on the earliest molecular events that lead to
the metabolic syndrome, Shulman and his colleagues used powerful new
magnetic resonance imaging techniques to observe how nutrients are
channeled in the body in both insulin resistant and insulin sensitive
human subjects."

.....   This study seems to add more evidence that the primary source
of Metabolic sydrome is   insulin resistance not Vat .  from the
article         "Another key observation was that skeletal muscle
insulin resistance precedes the development of insulin resistance in
liver cells, and that fat production in the liver is increased. "These
findings also have important implications for understanding the
pathogenesis of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, one of the most
prevalent liver diseases in both adults and children" Shulman said."
but       "The good news, according to Shulman, is that insulin
resistance in skeletal muscle can be countered through a simple
intervention: exercise'       http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/metabolic-syndrome-dont-blame-belly-fat-13712.html
Thanks Vince