Beware! Belly fat may lead to multiple heart attacks, study

Beware! Belly fat may lead to multiple heart attacks, study

According to the researchers, waist circumference was a more important marker of recurrent events than overall obesity. The reason abdominal obesity is very common in patients with a first heart attack is that it is closely linked with conditions that accelerate the clogging of arteries through atherosclerosi, the researchers said.

These conditions include increased blood pressure, high blood sugar and insulin resistance (diabetes) as well as raised blood lipid levels. "Our results, however, suggest that there may be other negative mechanisms associated with abdominal obesity that are independent of these risk factors and remain unrecognised," Mohammadi said.

"In our study, patients with increasing levels of abdominal obesity still had a raised risk for recurrent events despite being on therapies that lower traditional risk factors connected with abdominal obesity such as anti-hypertensives, diabetes medication and lipid lowering drugs," she added. According to the study, the relationship between waist circumference and recurrent events was stronger and more linear in men.

"There were three times as many men in the study compared to women, contributing to less statistical power in the female group. Therefore, more studies are needed before definite conclusions can be drawn according to gender," Mohammadi noted.

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