We all know that obesity is a risk factor for developing heart disease. But if you are too fat and your heart is already failing, your fat could save your life. Gregg Fonarow and colleagues, publishing in the American Heart Journal, found that the fatter a person admited to hospital with worsening heart failure, the less likely they were to die during a week-long hospital stay. The study included 100 000 patients admited to hospital because their heart failure was deteriorating. The researchers suggest that fat people may cope better with heart failure because they have more metabolic reserves to draw on when the heart isn't pumping blood fast enough to meet the body's needs.
