Ladies: Keep a Watch on That Belly

WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Charlotte E. Grayson Mathis, MD

Jan. 15, 2002 -- Weight gain in women, particularly in the abdominal area, triggers inflammation in the body and significantly raises your risk of heart disease, according to a new study.

It's a well-known fact that as weight goes up, so does your risk of heart disease. But a new study shows that as the belly goes out, your chance of having problems down the road may skyrocket.

There has been a flurry of research linking heart disease to inflammation in the body's arteries. Researchers in the current study say that hardening of the arteries is essentially an inflammatory response. The study is published in the Jan. 15 issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Patrizia Ziccardi, MD, PhD, and colleagues studied 56 healthy young women age 25-44. The women were significantly overweight with a large amount of the weight around their waistlines. The researchers wanted to see if these women had more signs of inflammation in their bodies compared to normal-weight women -- and if losing weight might ease that inflammation.

Compared with the normal-weight women, the overweight women had significantly higher levels of inflammatory substances in their blood. Plus, these chemicals were even more elevated in women with a higher proportion of abdominal fat.

And we know that weight loss eases stress on the heart. But could part of this benefit be due to lowering damaging inflammation in the body?

The overweight women were put on a weight-loss program for one year -- including diet, exercise, and behavioral counseling. All the women lost at least 10% of their original body weight -- an average of 22 pounds each.

The weight loss did produce a fall in the amount of an inflammatory chemical in the women's bodies. And the function of their blood vessels seemed to improve as well.

It's nothing new that weight loss in overweight people is heart healthy. But this research builds on previous evidence that these excess pounds have a direct effect on producing harmful chemicals in the body. And thankfully, there is something you can do. Losing weight isn't easy, but with the right approach, it can save your life.

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