Pot Bellies Point to Heart Risk

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Such calcium deposits, Lemos and his colleagues noted, collect years before the onset of chest pains or a heart attack.

Detectable coronary artery calcium was found in just over 20 percent (583) of the men and women tested. Almost 40 percent of those who underwent an MRI (976) were found to have detectable aortic plaque.

After factoring out differences in blood pressure, diabetes, age, smoking, or cholesterol status, body shape was a much better indicator of either calcium or plaque status than either simple weight or BMI numbers.

For both men and women, the bigger the belly in relation to the hips -- otherwise called the waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) -- the greater the likelihood of arterial calcium in the heart.

After dividing the participants into five groups ranging from those with the smallest to the largest WHRs, the authors specifically observed that those with the largest were almost twice as likely to have coronary calcium as those with the smallest.

Even if your belt buckled somewhere between flat and fat, you weren't home-free, the researchers said. That's because even incremental increases in waist-to-hip-ratio translated into small but steady increases in calcium deposits.

Those with the largest waist-to-hip ratios were also three times as likely to have atherosclerotic plaque as those in the smallest waist-to-hip group, the researchers said.

Although higher BMI and waist circumference readings alone were also associated with signs of atherosclerosis, waist-to-hip ratios were found to be much more stronger indicators of either calcium or plaque build-up.

Lemos and his team noted that BMI, in particular, does not gauge body composition, because it fails to account for the fact that abdominal fat -- as opposed to fat around the hips -- may be much less healthy. Abdominal fat appears to trigger a chain of inflammatory activities that translates into harmful metabolic changes, plaque build-up and, ultimately, heart disease, the researchers said.

"The good news for patients is that it's not an 'all or nothing' situation," said Lemos. "Even little improvements in your body shape are going to prove beneficial, with the goal being the smallest waist relative to your hips that you can have -- without becoming anorexic, obviously."