Young, apparently fit people 'at risk of atherosclerosis'
Thursday 27th October 2011
Although age and obesity are major risk factors for cardiovascular conditions, a new study has revealed that doctors should look past these demographics.
New research has found that atherosclerosis, a build-up of fat in the walls of the arteries, affects a large number of apparently healthy young men and women.
Dr Eric Larose, an interventional cardiologist at the Institut Universitaire de Cardiologie et de Pneumologie de Quebec said: "The proportion of young, apparently healthy adults who are presumably 'the picture of health' who already have atherosclerosis is staggering."
The Heart and Stroke Foundation study enrolled 168 young adults with no known cardiovascular disease or risk factors including family history of premature heart disease, diabetes, smoking, high blood cholesterol or high blood pressure.
Complete body measurements were taken, including height, weight, body-mass index and waist circumference. Various fat deposits throughout the body were also measured using MRI. These included subcutaneous fat as well as the fat within and around the abdomen and chest including intra-abdominal or visceral fat.
It was found that while many participants did not exhibit traditional risk factors for atherosclerosis, they did have discreet signs of the condition such as greater waist circumference and visceral fat covering the internal organs within the chest and abdomen. Visceral fat is particularly difficult to measure because it cannot easily be detected by looking at someone.
"We know obesity is a bad thing," continued Dr Larose, "but we're dropping the ball on a large proportion of young adults who don't meet traditional measures of obesity such as weight and BMI."
Young adults with more visceral fat have greater atherosclerosis burden, meaning they are at a higher risk of cardiovascular events in the long term, including heart attack and stroke.
This study supports previous findings which revealed that as much as 80 per cent of young Americans who were killed in a car crash or in war had premature and hidden atherosclerosis.
Dr Larose explained that the strength of these findings mean that atherosclerosis could be measured in live individuals instead of waiting for an autopsy.
Heart and Stroke Foundation spokesperson Dr Beth Abramson said that by leading a healthy life, people can generally avoid such conditions.
"You can think of it as a ticking time bomb inside your body that might explode later in life," she said.
"There is a lot you can do to defuse the explosion."
It is possible that women should place even more emphasis on trying to stave off cardiovascular conditions than their male counterparts, with the results of a new study indicating that in some cases, females may have a higher heart risk.
The AMI55 study from the Heart and Stroke Foundation also revealed that women under the age of 55 fare worse than their male counterparts after experiencing a heart attack.
Furthermore, their health status was found to decline more after one month as a result of the cardiovascular event.
Women between the ages of 20 and 55 had significantly worse physical limitations, more recurrences of chest pain and worse quality of life than men one month after heart attack. In men, just physical limitations worsened from baseline to one month.
Dr Karin Humphries, professor of Women's Cardiovascular Health at the University of British Columbia, said that these results could be due to social and cultural standards that typically see women of this age as primary caregivers.
"These women are likely not getting the support they need to recover from a heart attack," she said.
"Women are less likely to attend cardiac rehabilitation than their male counterparts even when they are referred. We need to help women overcome their barriers to this essential part of their recovery."
Written by Mathew Horton
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