Spare tires, love handles worsen heart disease risk

Having 'spare tires' - hidden fat in the abdomen - as well as 'love handles' or visible flab, may worsen heart disease risk factors, a new study has found, reports PTI. The study by US National Heart Lung and Blood Institute also found that the density of the stomach fat is just as important as how much fat you have. In general, the higher the fat content, the lower the attenuation, or fat density. These adverse changes in cardiovascular risk were evident over a relatively short period of time and persisted even after accounting for changes in body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference, two commonly used methods to estimate whether someone is a healthy weight or not. Previous studies showed that people who carry excess abdominal fat around midsection or so-called 'spare tire', tend to face higher risks of heart disease compared to people who have fat elsewhere. "We show that an increase in the amount of stomach fat and a lower density fat is associated with worse heart disease risk factors, even after accounting for how much weight was gained," said Caroline Fox, who was at the US National Heart Lung and Blood Institute during the research.