A new study has shown adverse effects of excess fat accumulation in the body during middle age, reports Science Daily.
Researchers have now found a link between excess body fat and stiff arteries, which lead to heart problems.
When a person is young, blood vessels are active and they tend to fight against the effects of obesity. But in later age, fat in the body causes the arteries to become stiffer, according to a new study. Another study recently presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Liverpool, says that middle age obesity doubles the risk of developing dementia, a brain related disorder. Currently nearly $35 billion is spent on medication for dementia.
According to the researchers at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Clinical Sciences Centre at Imperial College London, blood was found to travel swiftly in stiff vessels than in healthy elastic vessels. Researchers conducted MRI scans for 200 participants to measure the speed of the blood flow in aorta.
"The effects of having more fat seem to be different depending on your age. It looks like young people may be able to adapt to excess body fat, but by middle age the cumulative exposure to years of obesity may start to cause permanent damage to the arteries," said Dr Declan O'Regan, who led the study. "One implication is that the potential beneficial effects of weight loss may depend on your age and how long you have been overweight. This is something we plan to study further."
Although it remains unknown how the body fat effects the heart arteries, but the researchers think that "certain metabolic products in the blood may progressively damage the elastic fibers in our blood vessels" resulting in the stiffness of the arteries.
The research, funded by the MRC, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Imperial Biomedical Research Centre, and the British Heart Foundation, is published in the journalHypertension.
