Obesity-Related Inflammation Boosts Heart Risks (HealthDay)

TUESDAY, May 6 (HealthDay News) -- Obesity causes prolongedinflammation of heart tissue that in turn boosts heart failure risk,according to a U.S. study of almost 7,000 people.

The latest findings from the Multiethnic Study of Atherosclerosis(MESA) are believed to provide the first large scale of evidence of such alink and give the estimated 72 million obese American adults anotherreason to change their lifestyle.

"The biological effects of obesity on the heart are profound. Even ifobese people feel otherwise healthy, there are measurable and earlychemical signs of damage to their heart, beyond the well-knownimplications for diabetes and high blood pressure," senior studyinvestigator Dr. Joao Lima, a professor of medicine and radiology at theJohns Hopkins University School of Medicine and its Heart Institute, saidin a prepared statement.

There is "now even more reason for (obese people) to lose weight,increase their physical activity and improve their eating habits," Limasaid.

He and his colleagues tracked the development of heart failure in anethnically diverse group of nearly 7,000 people, ages 45 to 84, whoenrolled in the MESA study, starting in 2000. Of the 79 participantswho've developed congestive heart failure so far, 35 (44 percent) werephysically obese (body mass index of 30 or greater).

On average, obese participants were found to have higher blood levelsof key immune system proteins involved in inflammation (interleukin 6,C-reactive protein, and fibrinogen) than non-obese participants. A neardoubling of average interleukin 6 levels alone was associated with an 84percent increased risk of heart failure.

"Our results showed that when the effects of other known disease riskfactors -- including race, age, sex, diabetes, high blood pressure,smoking, family history and blood cholesterol levels -- were statisticallyremoved from the analysis, inflammatory chemicals in the blood of obeseparticipants stood out as key predictors of who got heart failure," Limasaid.

He added that doctors "need to monitor their obese patients for earlysigns of inflammation in the heart and to use this information indetermining how aggressively to treat the condition."

Lima and colleagues also found a link between inflammation andmetabolic syndrome, which doubles a person's chances of developing heartfailure. Metabolic syndrome is a collection of risk factors -- obesity,high blood pressure, elevated blood glucose levels, excess abdominal fat,and abnormal cholesterol levels -- that increase the risk of heart diseaseand diabetes.

The study was published in the May 6 issue of the Journal of theAmerican College of Cardiology. The MESA study was expected tocontinue tracking patients through 2012.

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