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How to keep your Heart Healthy
New research shows you don’t
have to be waif thin to slash your risk of a heart attack.In my practice, I’ve seen a number of overweight patients virtually eliminate their heart disease risk by losing just a few pounds. This is, of course, wonderful news.
I believe that most of us, by employing a few simple lifestyle changes, can avoid having a heart attack. But while I delight in my patients’ successes, some of them are dissatisfied by minimal weight loss. In reaching for that goal, they often inadvertently sabotage the newfound cardiovascular fitness that losing just a little weight can provide.
Are you surprised to learn that you can be fit and, to put it in-delicately, fat? The latest re-search, out of Louisiana State University, shows that overweight women can improve their heart health by adding just 10 minutes of activity a day. In that study, researchers asked more than 400 sedentary women with high or borderline-high blood pressure to add a short bout of moderately intense activity, such as brisk walking, to their daily routines for 6 months.
Although the women as a group neither lost weight nor lowered their blood pressure, they ended up fitter, as measured by their oxygen intake and—this is the really important part—their waistlines got smaller. That’s significant because belly, or visceral, fat is linked to insulin resistance, a contributor to heart disease. You can reach this level of fitness without losing a pound.
The classic yo-yo diet
The trouble, at least for some of my patients, is that they are more concerned about slimness than heart health. No matter what I tell them, they go on a drastic diet. As the pounds fall off, so does some muscle mass, lowering their metabolism, so that when they resume eating normally they burn off calories more slowly. It’s not long before the weight—and the nasty belly fat—comes back.
Metabolism is the key player here, dictated in large part by your genes. Canadian researchers have shown, for instance, that when they have total control of identical twins’ diets and overfeed them, siblings gain nearly the same amount, while there is wide variation among the sets of twins. Given the same food, one pair might gain 4.5kgs, another pair 13kgs.
Bottom line
Everyone burns calories at a different rate, which is why some of you will have to struggle mightily to lose weight. But remember: There is more than one way to be healthy. Your ideal weight should be determined by what’s going on in the inside—with your HDL, triglycerides, and blood sugar—not only by how you look in the mirror. You should be delighted to know that even if the perfect figure is outside your grasp, a fit and healthy body is still within reach.
Test for hidden belly fat
Even if your body weight is normal, you should ask your heart doctor about a simple, non-invasive test that detects hidden belly fat, a risk factor for heart disease, according to a report in the journal Clinical Endocrinology. Known as the brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity test, it accurately predicts the presence of visceral fat around the organs by measuring how efficiently blood moves throughout the body (visceral fat is known to impede that flow). Researchers say hidden belly fat is most commonly found among normal-weight people who get little or no exercise.