Belly Fat Tied to Sudden Cardiac Death

The New York Times reports:

Having a “beer belly” significantly increases the risk for sudden cardiac death, a new study has found.

Sudden cardiac death is the result of an electrical malfunction that causes the heart to beat irregularly. It is not the same as a heart attack, which results from a failure of blood circulation to the heart, but accounts for about half of all cardiac-related deaths.

Researchers followed 14,941 men and women, average age 54 at the start of the study, for almost 13 years. The subjects underwent detailed health examinations five times over the course of the study, and there were 253 sudden cardiac deaths. The study is online in Heart.

No word yet on this study from health and fitness expert Lena Dunham.