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People who are slim but have hidden pockets of fat in their muscles are at increased risk fatal heart conditions, new research shows.
Researchers from Harvard Medical School studied “intramuscular fat,” similar to the fat found in prized Wagyu beef, and found that women with this type of fat had a higher risk of death or hospitalization than heart attack or heart failure – regardless of their body mass index.
Researchers looked at 669 women who had been followed up at Brigham and Women’s Hospital for chest pain or shortness of breath but who had no evidence of coronary artery disease.
research, published in European Heart Journal on Mondayfound that women with high levels of intermuscular fat were at “particularly high risk” of heart attack or failure, with every 1 percent increase in the proportion of fat stored in muscle increasing the risk of future serious cardiac events by 7 percent.
The research also found that people with more muscle mass had a lower risk, and concluded that fat stored under the skin did not increase the risk of heart attack.
Professor Viviany Taqueti, director of the Cardiac Stress Laboratory at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and faculty at Harvard Medical School, said that compared to fat under the skin, fat stored in muscle can contribute to inflammation and altered glucose metabolism, which can lead to conditions that can damage blood vessels.
“Knowing that intramuscular fat increases the risk of heart disease gives us another way to identify people who are at high risk, regardless of their body mass index,” she said.
“What we don’t know yet is how we can reduce the risk for people with lean muscle. For example, we don’t know how treatments like new weight loss therapies affect fat in muscle versus fat in other parts of the body, lean tissue, and ultimately the heart.”
Professor Taqueti, who led the study, said obesity was “one of the biggest global threats to cardiovascular health”. body mass index remained a “controversial and misleading marker of cardiovascular prognosis”.
“This is especially true in women, where a high BMI may reflect a more ‘benign’ type of fat,” she said.
All patients had their heart function assessed, and the researchers used CT scans to analyze each patient’s body composition, including the amount of fat and muscle. The patients, who had an average age of 63, were then followed up after six weeks, and the researchers recorded whether anyone died or was hospitalized for a heart attack or heart failure.
U magazine editorialDr Ranil de Silva of Imperial College London and colleagues noted that there were limitations to the research, including the fact that it was an observational study done retrospectively, and details including insulin resistance, diet or exercise performance were not included.
Dr de Silva said the research was intriguing and highlighted a group of patients at increased risk, and hoped the work would prompt further research.