People with fatty muscles face higher heart risks, study finds
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People with hidden pockets of fat in their muscles – similar to so-called marbling in beef – are at a higher risk of dying from heart attacks or heart failure regardless of their body weight, according to a study. While “fatty marbling”, or flecks of fat running through meat, is commercially valued in livestock, in humans it has been associated with insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, researchers said.
It is not yet known how to reduce the risk of heart problems in those with fatty muscles, although academics suggest their findings could be important for ongoing studies looking at the impact of weight loss drugs on heart health. For the study, US researchers looked at 669 people being evaluated at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston for chest pain and/or shortness of breath, but were found to have no evidence of obstructive coronary artery disease, a condition where the arteries that supply the heart become clogged.
The group were given scans to assess their heart function, while researchers also used CT scans to analyse body composition and measure the amounts and location of fat and muscle in sections of their torso. To determine the amount of fat stored in muscles, the team calculated the ratio of intermuscular fat to total muscle plus fat used a measurement they called the fatty muscle fraction.
Professor Viviany Taqueti, director of the cardiac stress laboratory at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and faculty at Harvard Medical School, said: “Intermuscular fat can be found in most muscles in the body, but the amount of fat can vary widely between different people.
