Body Weight
Fat around the heart raises risk of heart attack
By Ben Wasserman
Aug 2, 2008 - 2:16:54 PM

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SATURDAY August 2, 2008 (foodconsumer.org) -- Not all fats in the body cause the same magnitude of harm.   A new study reported in the August issue of the journal Obesity found the fat around the heart is worse than the fat in other parts of the body when it comes to the heart attack risk.

The study led by researchers from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center showed pericardial fat was associated with the calcified plaque in the arteries. This type of plaque is associated with less stable fatty deposits that lead to heart attack and stroke.

For the study, the researchers looked at data for 6,800 men and women who participated in the Multi-ethnic study of Atherosclerosis to establish a correlation between fat around the arteries in the heart and risk of fatty deposits in the vessels.

Calcified coronary plaque was found in 58 percent of participants. The researchers found those with the highest levels of fat were 4.65 times more likely to have calcified coronary plaque.

But they did not observe any association between calcified coronary plaque and body mass index or waist circumference.