Men sporting a “beer belly” may be facing a heightened risk of a serious health condition, as revealed by a recent study. New research has drawn attention to the link between heart disease and abdominal obesity.

The research, which will be unveiled at the upcoming Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual meeting, indicates that belly fat is linked to more detrimental changes in heart structure than overall body weight alone, with men being particularly affected.

Jennifer Erley, the study’s lead author from the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendor in Germany, noted, “Abdominal obesity, reflected in a high waist-to-hip ratio, correlates with more alarming cardiac remodeling patterns compared to high body mass index (BMI) alone.”

She elaborated, “It seems to cause a potentially harmful type of cardiac remodeling known as concentric hypertrophy, where the heart muscle thickens but the heart’s overall size remains unchanged, resulting in reduced cardiac volumes. Essentially, the inner chambers shrink, leading to a decreased capacity for the heart to hold and pump blood.”

This alteration hampers the heart’s ability to relax properly, which can eventually pave the way to heart failure,” Erley added. The study analyzed cardiovascular MRI scans of 2,244 adults aged 46 to 78 who did not have diagnosed cardiovascular disease.

Based on BMI, 69% of men and 56% of women in the study were categorized as overweight or obese. However, when considering waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), 91% of men and 64% of women met the World Health Organization’s (WHO) criteria for obesity.

As reported by Study Finds, general obesity based on BMI was more often linked to enlarged heart chambers across all the participants. Abdominal obesity was associated with thickening of the heart muscle and smaller heart chamber volumes. 

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These changes were more stark in the male participants, particularly in the right ventricle, which pumps blood to the lungs. Researchers believe this may indicate early cardiac stress on the heart related to how abdominal fat affects breathing and lung pressure.

Further to this, obesity also was linked to subtle heart tissue changes in males, which were only spotted with advanced cardiac MRI. These associations persisted even after accounting for other cardiovascular risk factors, including arterial hypertension, smoking, diabetes and cholesterol.

Dr Erley continued: “The sex-specific differences suggest that male patients may be more vulnerable to the structural effects of obesity on the heart, a finding not widely reported in earlier studies. Rather than focusing on reducing overall weight, middle-aged adults should focus on preventing abdominal fat accumulation through regular exercise, a balanced diet and timely medical intervention, if necessary.”

She noted that more research into the topic is needed.

How to check your waist-to-hip ratio

Anyone can calculate their WHR at home by measuring the waist and hip and then dividing their waist circumference at its narrowest point by their hip circumference at its widest point. A ratio above 0.90 for men and 0.85 for women is an indicator of abdominal obesity and is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease, according to the WHO.         

Other research 

This is not the first time research has found a link between belly fat and serious health issues. One study, published in Neurology journal in 2024, found that having a high level of fat around the belly increases the chance of being diagnosed with any kind of dementia, Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease by 13 per cent.

This was compared to having low levels of fat around the waist. On top of this, having more fat around the arms was discovered to raise this risk by 18 per cent. 

And another study, published in the Annals of Neurology in 2011, found that having visceral fat in middle age was associated with reduced brain volume.