United States: People want high-quality steak cuts for grilling, but researchers now find human muscle fat deposits to be dangerous.
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Research published January 20 in the European Heart Journal shows people with fat in their muscle tissue have higher risks of dying from heart disease.
The research shows that as muscle fat increases by 1 percent heart disease death risk grows by 7 percent.
The study team revealed that these deep physical areas with fat exist even in individuals who maintain a healthy BMI.
The scan showed this heart risk operated independently both from BMI and other recognized heart risk markers, US News reported.
How was the study conducted?
According to senior researcher Dr. Viviany Taqueti, director of the Cardiac Stress Laboratory at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, “Knowing that intermuscular fat raises the risk of heart disease gives us another way to identify people who are at high risk, regardless of their body mass index,” US News reported.
The researchers took imaging scans from 670 patients at Brigham Women’s Hospital who had chest pain or breathing problems during their examinations.
CT scans helped doctors understand the exact performance of each patient’s heart. The scans evaluated the distribution and amount of fat while tracking muscle composition across individuals’ torso regions.
The team of researchers formed a measurement, which they called “fatty muscle fraction,” to quantify the amount of hidden fat within each patient’s muscles.
“Intermuscular fat can be found in most muscles in the body, but the amount of fat can vary widely between different people,” Taqueti stated.
Individuals who had more muscle fat showed greater danger to their heart’s microvascular system with coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD).
For each percent rise in their fatty muscle fraction, subjects experienced two percent higher chances of CMD, according to researchers.
People who measured high in fatty muscle and showed CMD test results faced extreme danger of fatal heart events and heart failure.
People who had greater lean muscle appeared safer, and excess fat below their skin did not make them more vulnerable.
These findings expand our understanding of why BMI and waist-to-height ratios fail to accurately detect heart disease threats in various groups, according to experts, US News reported.
“Compared to subcutaneous fat, fat stored in muscles may be contributing to inflammation and altered glucose metabolism leading to insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome,” as Taqueti noted.
“In turn, these chronic insults can cause damage to blood vessels, including those that supply the heart and the heart muscle itself,” Taqueti continued.