Login | June 06, 2025
Fatty muscle tissue not always good
PETE GLADDEN
Pete’s World
Published: June 2, 2025
Interesting how we place such a high value on those premium cuts of beef that contain small pockets of fat buried within the muscle tissue - marbling - compared to how we place a much lower value on those other “tougher” cuts of beef that are far less fatty and way more muscled.
And that scenario might be cool when you’re shopping for a delectable cut of beef for your Sunday dinner but how is that marbled muscle tissue viewed when it’s in you?
Turns out the answer’s that it’s viewed as not so good.
And in a recent study published in the January 2025 edition of the European Heart Journal, researchers have found that individuals with greater quantities of intrermuscular fat have an elevated risk of “adverse heart outcomes.”
Now this was apparently the first of its kind study to take a super deep dive into the role that intermuscular fat has on human cardiovascular health.
And what’s so stunning about the study is that they discovered that this intermuscular fat doesn’t seem to correlate with one’s body mass index (BMI) nor one’s waist circumference measurements, a finding that means the health care industry just might need to reevaluate how they assess cardiovascular health, especially with respect to using methods such as BMI and waist circumference as health measuring sticks.
So how does intermuscular fat differ from subcutaneous fat (fat directly under the skin) and visceral fat (fat around the organs)?
Well, subcutaneous fat isn’t really bad from a health standpoint, except if you get to the point to where it becomes excessive.
And even possessing too much subcutaneous fat isn’t as problematic as possessing too much visceral fat.
Too much visceral fat really lands one into the danger zone.
That’s because an excess of visceral fat has been proven to lead to type II diabetes, heart disease and fatty liver maladies.
Now with respect to intermuscular fat, well, it’s kind of been a wild card in this healthy/unhealthy fat discussion until recently.
You see it’s long been less understood than the other two, and what’s more it’s long been considered simply a part of one’s overall muscle mass.
Yet as we’ve gradually learned more about this intermuscular fat we’ve begun to see it as being a not so good type of fat.
And several of the more alarming recent findings concerning intermuscular fat are that at high levels it’s been associated with insulin resistance, a loss of strength and mobility dysfunction in older adults.
Now, what with this new research published in the European Heart Journal, high levels of intermuscular fat also appear to be associated with adverse heart outcomes.
So this variety of fat looks to be right up there as a not so good fat just like visceral fat.
Now from what researchers of this study have been able to ascertain, and more precisely why the alarm bells are ringing so loudly when it comes to elevated levels of intermuscular fat, is this: They’ve discovered that people with higher levels of intermuscular fat for some odd reason are more prone to incur damage to those tiny blood vessels in their hearts (a malady termed coronary microvascular dysfunction - CMD).
Not only that but said individuals were coincidentally more likely to either die or end up in the hospital for heart disease.
The research found that for every 1% increase in fatty muscle fraction, there was a corresponding 2% increased risk for CMD and a 7% increased risk of impending heart disease.
And again, all of this is regardless of other known risk factors including BMI and waist circumference measurements.
Now contrast that with the revelation that people with higher amounts of lean muscle have been found to have a much lower risk for the aforementioned maladies.
And as reported by Sophia Antipolis in her article on this study published in the Jan. 20, 2025 Online Issue of the European Society of Cardiology, the study’s lead researcher, Professor Viviany Taqueti was quoted as saying: “Compared to subcutaneous fat, fat stored in muscles may be contributing to inflammation and altered glucose metabolism leading to insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome. In turn, these chronic insults can cause damage to blood vessels, including those that supply the heart, and the heart muscle itself.”
I guess this is yet another reason to try to keep those muscles lean, mean and tough with a steady dose of resistance workouts.