Why losing weight protects the heart

BALTIMORE, May 5 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers found wide-scale evidence linking severe overweight to prolonged inflammation of heart tissue, which leads to heart damage.

Senior study investigator Dr. Joao Lima of The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore said that the biological effects of obesity on the heart are quite profound.

Even if obese people feel otherwise healthy, there are measurable and early chemical signs of damage to their heart, beyond the well-known implications for diabetes and high blood pressure," Lima said in a statement.

There is "now even more reason for them to lose weight, increase their physical activity and improve their eating habits."

The researchers conducted tests and tracked the development of heart failure in an ethnically diverse group of nearly 7,000 men and women, ages 45 to 84, who were enrolled in the Multiethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, starting in 2000.

The study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, found that of the 79 who have developed congestive heart failure so far, 35 were physically obese, having a body mass index of 30 or greater. On average, obese participants were found to have higher blood levels of interleukin 6, C-reactive protein and fibrinogen, key immune system proteins involved in inflammation, than non-obese adults.