Lifestyle Habits Can Alter Our Heart’s Size And Weight
A study out of the UK is the first to demonstrate that carrying extra pounds damages the heart by increasing its size and weight.
The research, funded by the British Heart Foundation, and carried out by University of Oxford academics utilized information from the UK Biobank. The Biobank is a health database with over 500,000 volunteer participants.
The investigators looked at cardiac magnetic resonance imaging records to analyze the heart structure and function of 4,561 Biobank individuals. After adjusting for unmodifiable risk factors, the team measured the effect of modifiable risk factors on the heart’s chambers, including blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), smoking habits, cholesterol, exercise, alcohol intake, and glucose levels.
Earlier studies already determined a link between BMI and heart disease, showing that added weight increases independent heart disease risk factors such as cholesterol, and blood pressure.
This recent study is different because it measured the direct damage that modifiable factors can inflict on the heart’s structure and function, such as increasing the heart’s size and weight.
“This research shows the silent impact of being overweight and having high blood pressure on the structure and function of the heart, which over time may lead to heart disease and heart failure,” says professor Sir Nilesh Samani, Medical Director of the British Heart Foundation.
Samani suggests the important take away from the study is that people have the power to change their habits before incurring irreversible heart damage.
Source: Queen Mary University of London
Photo credit: Marco Verch
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