What if there was a way to get rid of fat around the heart, often embedded in the major arteries that supply critical blood flow?

According to several innovative health professionals, the idea is not a pie-in-the-sky pipe dream. These experts use natural means of promoting wellness rather than medications, which can have side effects.

Risks Explained

Heart disease is the top cause of death worldwide. While excess body fat is a known risk factor, the location of that fat is vitally important, reported a 2014 study published in Cardiovascular Diagnosis & Therapy.

The body has two main types of fat: subcutaneous, which lies under the skin, and visceral, located deep within the belly and chest, including around the heart. These two types of fat pose different levels of risk.

A 2018 study published in the Journal of Lipid Research states that a certain amount of subcutaneous fat in the hips and thighs may have a protective effects against heart disease, but generally, obesity increases the risk of heart disease. Higher quantities of visceral fat relative to subcutaneous fat represent a separate risk over that of of obesity.

Research increasingly suggests that visceral fat is a major determinant of cardiovascular health, Dr. Sanjay Rajagopalan, director, Cardiovascular Research Institute, School of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University, told The Epoch Times.

Visceral fat that is in direct contact with heart arteries and their branches is becoming a particular concern, he said. Data based on CT scans indicates visceral fat increases the chance of calcification developing in a heart artery. In fact, fat in this region can predict future cardiovascular events.

“Additionally, current evidence suggests that pathological alterations in the fat tissue around the heart, such as inflammation, typified by the collection of white blood cells, results in the release of inflammatory substances called cytokines,” Rajagopalan explained.

“These in turn adversely affect the function of the underlying heart muscle tissue. This then determines propensity for cardiovascular events, including heart attacks, heart failure, and even rhythm disturbances like atrial fibrillation.”

To what extent the collection of visceral fat around the heart predicts risk independent of visceral belly fat and other risk factors remains to be determined, he said.

Natural Prevention and Treatment

The following three approaches to the natural prevention and treatment of visceral fat have some similarities and distinct differences.

1. Health Optimization Approach

Dr. Sean O’Mara, a health and performance optimizing physician and researcher, offers a program to remove visceral fat, particularly that surrounding the heart. He suggests that reducing or eliminating visceral fat is key to heart health and asserts this key is not being addressed by the medical community at large.

“I work with patients to eliminate not only heart fat, but also fat in the muscle, visceral belly fat, and deep subcutaneous fat,” O’Mara told The Epoch Times.

“Most cardiologists, including heart surgeons, have no idea about visceral belly or heart fat levels because they are not trained in it. The pharmaceutical industry knows that these fat deposits are very harmful, but this information is kept from medical schools.”

O’Mara says that removing fat from the body should be the focus of cardiology rather than the current emphasis of lowering cholesterol. “The lower the cholesterol level, the higher the death rate,” he said. “This wrong focus stems from pharmaceutical industry marketing, which has the goal of making money rather than improving heart health. The lower the cholesterol, the more disease people have, and the more money the industry makes.”

O’Mara’s health optimization plan uses a variety of natural strategies, some of which differ significantly from traditional medical advice and natural health practitioners’ recommendations. His program includes:

• Diet: Instead of what many regard as a healthy diet, such as the Mediterranean diet, follow the live carnivore diet. This includes meat and fermented-only fruits, vegetables, and dairy products, such as yogurt. Non-fermented fruits and vegetables contain mildly inflammatory compounds that are eliminated by fermentation along with sugars present in carbohydrates. Fermentation retains the nutrients and beneficial microbes that boost microbiome health in the gut. It is also important to avoid processed foods.
• Fasting Lifestyle: Practice prolonged fasting, as opposed to milder forms of fasting called intermittent fasting. Prolonged fasting is similar to the eating pattern of our ancestors, who ate for 2–3 days, followed by extended periods of fasting. People who engage in extended fasts are healthier and can reverse more disease.
• Exercise: Long distant running, jogging, or aerobics, where the body endeavors to retain fat is not recommended. Instead, anaerobic activity is encouraged, which is what happens in the absence of oxygen. An example is sprinting, but walking is also a good anaerobic exercise.
• Sauna and cold plunge: Using a sauna produces substances referred to as heat-shock proteins, while the cold plunge produces cold-shock proteins, both of which make people healthier and reduce death risk.

A small, male-only study published in Nutrients found that in those who could tolerate it, a 10-day extended fast established metabolic balance and burned fat. The investigators recommended between 3 and 6 days of extended fasting in those who can tolerate it.

A review published in the International Journal of Circumpolar Health found that voluntary exposure to cold water has potential health benefits that warrant further investigation, including prevention of heart disease and obesity. Exposure to cold water also poses risks, such as heart and breathing problems from the shock experienced when entering the water, so older adults or people in poor health may not be good candidates.

O'Mara’s program is available through his Minneapolis clinic and online. He provides evidence of its effects with MRIs of the heart:

O'Mara points out that not adhering to all aspects of the program, such as continuing consumption of carbohydrates, will impair the elimination of visceral fat. Aside from durational exercise like long-distance running, other factors that can make the fat difficult to remove include stress, poor sleep, and alcohol use.

According to O’Mara, the results are experienced quickly.

We typically will see fat around the heart reduced by about 80 percent in about 3–4 months,” he said.  

2. Natural Heart Doctor Approach

Dr. Jack Wolfson, a board-certified cardiologist and one of the country’s top functional medicine doctors, told The Epoch Times that “fat around the heart correlates with visceral belly fat and fatty liver. It is also more common in people who smoke or are obese or diabetic.”

According to Wolfson, his program, the Natural Health Doctor, reduces visceral fat, whether it is in the belly or around the heart. Wolfson recommends:

• Eat Well: Follow the Paleo diet, an eating plan that consists of foods our ancestors ate, including grass-fed meat, wild seafood, fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, eggs, and nutritious fats. Eat organic, which means avoiding artificial ingredients and pesticides.
• Live Well: Getting at least 7 hours or more per night of sleep is critical. Our ancestors went to bed shortly after sundown and woke before sunrise. Sunshine exposure to the skin and eyes is important, as the more time we spend outdoors, the longer we live. The Skin Cancer Foundation recommends, at most, 10–15 minutes of unprotected sun exposure 2–3 times per week. Exercise is vital, so we need to walk, bike, and engage in hundreds of activities. Keep your environment as healthy as possible, which means avoiding toxins, pollutants, and mold. Sauna, air purification, and water purification are also beneficial.
• Think Well: Happy people live longer than those who are not happy. People with mental health issues have cardiovascular conditions like high blood pressure, heart attack, and stroke at a much younger age. Rather than taking a pharmaceutical drug, such as antidepressants, the answer is to find natural strategies to get rid of anxiety, fear, worry, and depression.
• Evidence-Based Supplements: Pharmaceuticals have limited benefits. To illustrate, statins reduce cholesterol but have no meaningful benefit in lowering the risk of heart attack, stroke, and death. We are looking to reduce and eliminate pharmaceuticals, all of which have side effects. Instead, consider taking berberine and vitamin C.

Wolfson stated that when people follow his program, their health improves 100 percent of the time.

What does he think underlies the plan’s success?

“When you lose weight with Paleo nutrition and the Paleo lifestyle we espouse at NHD, fat everywhere, including around the heart, decreases,” said Wolfson. “The secret is keeping insulin, a fat storage hormone, low. Fat around the heart, like all visceral fat, is pro-inflammatory, so reducing the fat and its accompanying inflammation leads to better cardiovascular function.”

High levels of insulin are associated with inflammation and obesity, found a review published in the Diabetes & Metabolism Journal. Considerable evidence indicates that elevated insulin levels are also a factor in the development of heart disease, noted a review published in the International Journal of Molecular Science.

3. Naturopathic Approach

Naturopathic medicine is a field that uses natural remedies to promote healing. In an interview with The Epoch Times, Caroline Mansfield, a registered naturopath at Human Consciousness Support, describes her approach to reducing fat around the heart.

• Eat an Anti-Inflammatory Diet: Include rich in whole foods, such as leafy green vegetables, healthy fats, and lean proteins, and avoid processed and high-sugar foods.
• Get Regular Exercise: Partake in regular moderate- to high-intensity exercise, which improves metabolism and fat burning. Experts define moderate as exercise that increases heart and breathing rate but doesn’t make it hard to talk, while vigorous exercise makes talking difficult.
• Manage Stress: Optimizing sleep and relaxation time helps to reduce cortisol, a key driver of fat accumulation.
• Detoxify: Detoxification support is vital. Using natural products such as zeolite helps remove toxins and endocrine disruptors that have been shown to contribute to fat storage and inflammation.

“Together these strategies have been shown in clinic to help reduce the metabolic and cardiovascular risks associated with fat around the heart,” said Mansfield. “In my experience diets shown to reduce visceral fat in the belly may also reduce visceral fat surrounding the heart.”