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Fat helps fight heart disease

By Chukwuma Muanya with agency reports
08 June 2015   |   11:44 pm
CERTAIN types of body fat can help a person fight heart disease, a new study revealed. Scientists believe their discovery may help explain why some obese patients live longer after suffering a heart attack, than their slimmer peers. A team at the University of Oxford found the fat surrounding a person’s blood vessels can help…
PHOTO: oliveoiltim.es

PHOTO: oliveoiltim.es

CERTAIN types of body fat can help a person fight heart disease, a new study revealed.

Scientists believe their discovery may help explain why some obese patients live longer after suffering a heart attack, than their slimmer peers.

A team at the University of Oxford found the fat surrounding a person’s blood vessels can help protect the body, triggering a defence against heart disease.

Professor Charalambos Antoniades, in a report published by DailyMailOnline said: “Fat has a bad reputation but we’re learning more and more about how and why certain types of fat in the body are actually essential for good heart health.

“Findings are an important step towards a treatment that ensures this fat stays on-side throughout our lives to help prevent heart disease.”

To arrive at their conclusions, presented at the British Cardiovascular Society conference in Manchester today, researchers analysed tissue collected from patients undergoing heart surgery.

They discovered how the heart, and the arteries supplying blood to it, send out an SOS to the fat surrounding these tissues.

The result is, that the body stimulates a defence mechanism against the early stages of coronary heart disease.

The study, led by the British Heart Foundation, revealed that during oxidative stress, a process that leads to the furring of the arteries, known as atherosclerosis, the fat surrounding the vessels and heart releases chemicals that minimise this oxidative stress and help prevent the development of coronary heart disease.

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