Pot Bellies Point to Heart Risk

This kind of fat was strong indicator of trouble ahead, study found.

By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter
Monday, August 13, 2007; 12:00 AM

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

MONDAY, Aug. 13 (HealthDay News) -- Banish the belly, not just the pounds: That's the heart-healthy advice from a new study that finds that "pot" bellies may be a big indicator of future heart disease.

"What we're seeing is a quite strong association between the pot-belly, apple shape among a relatively young group of people and the build-up of plaque in the arteries," said study co-author Dr. James A. de Lemos, an associate professor of medicine and director of the Coronary Care Unit at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

"Ten to 15 years down the road, this can lead to major cardiac problems, such as a heart attack," he said.

The findings are published in the Aug. 21 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

According to the American Heart Association (AHA), more than 870,000 Americans die from heart disease each year, making it the leading killer of both men and women.

Cardiovascular disease has long been associated with obesity, and approximately one-third of American adults are considered clinically obese, the researchers noted.

But are some forms of overweight worse than others? Lemos' team compared various ways of measuring obesity to detect signs of heart disease in the form of atherosclerosis ("hardening of the arteries").

They looked specifically at atherosclerosis, a systemic thickening and calcification of artery blood vessel walls due to a build-up of calcium and/or plaque composed of cholesterol and triglyceride fats.

The researchers focused on data collected between 2000 and 2002 on more than 2,700 men and women between the ages of 30 and 65, who were participating in the larger, multi-ethnic Dallas Heart Study.

Blood and urine samples were taken from all the participants following completion of a general health survey. A subsequent clinical exam calculated both weight and body mass index (BMI) -- a common obesity measurement based on weight-to-height ratios -- as well as waist and hip circumference.

All the men and women then underwent non-invasive imaging tests, including MRI to assess atherosclerosis and/or electron beam computed tomography (EBCT) that specifically looked at arterial calcium deposits in the heart.