Belly fat brings a higher risk of heart attacks

Not all fat is created equal.

Belly fat that gives your waistline an apple shape brings a higher risk of heart attacks than having a pear shape.

Obesity researcher Daniel Eitzman says it's tricky to tease out why, because people with excess belly fat often have other risk factors like high cholesterol or diabetes. But using mice, he and his team at the University of Michigan were able to control those factors.

"This study demonstrates a direct effect of belly fat on, on heart disease, and this effect occurs without changes in diabetes or blood cholesterol," said Eitzman.

Using mice that have no diabetes or high cholesterol but are still prone to heart artery blockages, the researchers implanted different kinds of fat from other mice. When they looked at the transplants several months later, they found fat cells had become inflamed only in mice that received belly fat.

Eitzman said, "The inflammation in these transplanted fat pads looked very similar to the type of inflammation that is seen in humans with obesity."

As they wrote in the journal, "Circulation," those mice also developed blockages much more quickly. When they gave the mice a drug known to reduce inflammation, it also reduced the blockages.

Eitzman says studying this process will help develop specific drugs to fight heart disease associated with belly fat.

In the meantime, he says it's yet another reason to get rid of that gut.