Its no secret that carrying extra body weight can raise your risk of experiencing health problems. But when it comes to predicting heart attack risknew research shows that excess fat around your heart may be worse than having too much belly fat!
Researchers working in collaboration with Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., conducted a study to determine whether fat deposits around your heartknown as pericardial fatcould be linked to the development of plaque in the arteries. Artery plaque is often accompanied by fatty deposits that can lead to heart attack and stroke.
According to a medical center statement, researchers examined data from the Multi-ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). This $68 million study included some 6,800 participants nationwide.
The researchers studied this data to explore their hypothesis that fat around the arteries in the heart contributes to inflammation and to increased risk of fatty deposits in the vessels.
For their analysis, the Wake Forest researchers measured the volume of heart fat in 159 study participants, ranging from 55 to 74 years old. They found that 58 percent of participants had hardened coronary plaque.
The researchers divided participants into four groups, based on their volume of heart fat. They found that the group with the highest levels of fat was almost five times (4.65) more likely to have calcified coronary plaque.
They also noted that while the volume of heart fat was related to levels of hardened coronary plaque, body mass index and waist circumference were not related.
The distribution of body fat may be as important as the amount of body fat in determining risk of heart attacks, said Jingzhong Ding, M.D., lead author and an assistant professor of gerontology. Even a thin person can have fat around the heart.
Dings study suggests that excess fat around the heart and other organs prevent them from functioning properly. Fat stored around the heart secretes higher levels of cytokinesor proteins that regulate inflammationthan fat stored under the skin. The scientists suspect that constant exposure of inflammatory proteins produced by fat around the heart may accelerate the development of atherosclerosis.
Ding hopes to continue the research to learn more about whether the buildup of fat around the heart can be prevented.