A new study has found that age-related accumulation of abdominal fat is associated with lower muscle density, which could lead to worse balance and possibly an increase in future falls.
Low muscle density means the muscle has more fat in it, which can lead to less effective muscle function that in turn may lead to more falls.
According to the study, published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, individuals with the greatest six-year accumulation of visceral adipose tissue (VAT) found in the abdomen, had significantly lower muscle density.
Since VAT accumulation is a preventable risk factor for poor musculoskeletal outcomes associated with ageing, these findings add to the growing dangers of accumulating fat in the body.
It is the first large, longitudinal study of the association between changes in VAT and muscle density.
It also found that VAT may represent a modifiable risk factor for poor musculoskeletal outcomes with ageing.
Lead author Ching-Ti Liu, PhD, Professor in the Department of Biostatistics at Boston University School of Public Health, and senior author Dr Douglas P Kiel, director of the Musculoskeletal Research Center and senior scientist at the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research, said: “Most obesity research has focused on metabolic and cardiovascular outcomes such as diabetes, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, coronary heart disease, and osteoarthritis. But there is considerably less consensus on the role of obesity on the risk for low muscle mass or muscle density.”
The authors concluded: “The study adds important new information to public health efforts to reverse the trend of the growing obesity problem in the United States and worldwide.
“Fat that accumulates in the abdomen sometimes referred to as the ‘male pattern,’ was shown to produce less dense muscle surrounding the spine, resulting in less-effective muscle function.”
The study was approved by Boston University Medical Campus and the Hebrew SeniorLife institutional review boards.