A study of 27 obese people found that these "non-complicated" patients, those obese but without diabetes, high blood pressure or high cholesterol, were more likely to suffer from a stiffened aorta, making the heart's main artery less able to expand and contract normally. A control group of 12 non-obese subjects was also studied.

"It's actually not a small subpopulation of the 300 million obese worldwide," said Monique Robinson, cardiovascular research fellow at the University of Oxford and a study author. "The take-home message is that just being overweight or obese without disease is not OK."

In the study released, the obese patients' aortas were on average 40 percent less flexible than the control group's.

Earlier a study found people who are extremely obese are as unhealthy, and probably as likely to die, as patients with heart failure.

The findings add to the growing debate over whether obesity is a disease, how to treat it and how to pay for that treatment.

Leptin, a hormone produced by fat cells, appears to be the culprit in the link between obesity and heart burden, Robinson said.

The hormone which is known to affect appetite, also influences inflammation in the body. Inflammation is linked to heart and artery disease.

Source: http://www.reuters.com