Physicians at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center conducted a new study using cardiac and CT scans to measure fat deposits in 398 white and black participants ages 47-86.
They say that the nation's obesity rate prompted them to do the study, with funding for the study coming from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the National Institutes of Health.
"We are facing an obesity epidemic, which obviously affects many things - metabolic abnormalities, cardiovascular disease, etc.," Jingzhong Ding, M.D., lead researcher and an assistant professor of gerontology, said in a statement. "Now we are finding out that where the fat is distributed is of high importance."
Researchers found that the amount of fat a person had deposited around organs and in between muscles (nonsubcutaneous fat) was directly connected to the amount of hard, calcified plaque they had.
Although calcified plaque by itself is not considered a risk factor, scientists know that its presence is linked to the development of atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is the presence of fatty deposits in the blood vessels that are less stable and that can lead to a heart attack or a stroke.
"Our hypothesis was that this kind of fat is quite different from subcutaneous fat, or fat just below the skin," Ding said. "Subcutaneous fat may not be as bad as having fat deposited around organs and in between muscles."
The findings of the study will appear in the September issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, a publication of the American Society for Nutrition.
