The portal hypothesis describes a possible mechanism for some of the health effects of obesity, particularly the metabolic syndrome.
The portal-visceral hypothesis is a replacement for the earlier "portal hypothesis", which said that visceral obesity leads to an increase in fatty acid levels specifically in the portal vein.
Additionally, most of the free fatty acids reaching the liver via the portal vein do not originate in visceral fat, rather they are generated largely by abdominal subcutaneous fat.
This capacity limit varies between individuals and can be very low for people with lipodystrophy.
This article about an endocrine, nutritional, or metabolic disease is a stub.