Scientists Warn Your Belly Fat Can Increase Heart Disease Risk
As you’ve probably realized, it gets harder to lose weight as you get older. A slower metabolism, hormonal changes, and lifestyle factors all contribute to this. And for these reasons, excess fat tends to accumulate in the belly. This is known as visceral fat, and since it surrounds internal organs, it’s especially dangerous. Case in point: New research shows that visceral fat can increase your risk of developing heart disease.
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What is visceral fat?
There are two types of body fat. Subcutaneous fat lies just below the skin and makes up about 90 percent of a person’s body fat, according to Harvard Health Publishing.
The remaining 10 percent is visceral fat, which accumulates in the spaces surrounding internal organs such as the liver, intestines, and stomach. This is often what we refer to as belly fat.
“Visceral fat makes more of the proteins called cytokines, which can trigger low-level inflammation, a risk factor for heart disease and other chronic conditions,” Harvard Health explains. “It also produces a precursor to angiotensin, a protein that causes blood vessels to constrict and blood pressure to rise.”
Moreover, research shows that our bodies produce more adipose progenitor cells (APCs) as we get older. These cells are what make up visceral fat.
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New research pinpoints how visceral fat affects your heart.
A new study, published in the European Heart Journal, determined that excessive amounts of visceral fat contribute to faster aging of the heart and blood vessels, which is the biggest risk factor for heart disease.
To arrive at their findings, scientists from London’s Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Medical Sciences analyzed the health data of 21,241 U.K. Biobank participants, according to a press release.
Using detailed images of each participant’s heart and blood vessels, along with whole-body images of body fat volume and distribution, the team consulted an artificial intelligence model to determine their “heart age” versus their actual age. Based on the results, scientists concluded the following:
- Faster heart aging is linked to having more visceral fat
- Visceral fat is linked to increased inflammation in the body, which can cause premature aging
This is especially concerning since, as Best Life recently reported, an unrelated study found that, on average, American women have a heart age four years older than their chronological age, while men’s heart age is seven years older.
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But women may be less at risk than men.
The researchers also observed a difference between male and female study participants.
“Male-type fat distribution,” which is that around the belly that produces an “apple” body shape, “was particularly predictive of early aging in men,” says the press release.
Conversely, “female-type fat distribution,” which is that around the hips and thighs that produces a “pear” body shape, “was protective against heart aging in women.”
“We have known about the apple and pear distinction in body fat, but it hasn’t been clear how it leads to poor health outcomes,” said lead study author Declan O’Regan, the British Heart Foundation Professor of Cardiovascular AI. “Our research shows that ‘bad” fat, hidden deep around the organs, accelerates aging of the heart. But some types of fat could protect against ageing—specifically fat around the hips and thighs in women.”
“We also showed that BMI wasn’t a good way of predicting heart age, which underscores the importance of knowing where fat is stored in the body and not just total body weight,” he added.
Next, O’Regan and his team plan to study how GLP-1 weight-loss drugs like Wegovy can play a role in not just weight loss, but loss of visceral fat.