Structured exercise reduces heart fat and an inflammatory marker in older adults
A 12-month randomized trial showed greater drops in epicardial adipose volume with more weekly sessions alongside lower circulating M-CSF levels.
Frontiers in public health · Xue X et al. · Paper published 16 Sep 2026
A randomized controlled trial evaluated 156 community-dwelling older adults aged 60 and older to determine the effects of a 12-month structured exercise program. The exercise group completed one supervised center-based session and at least two home-based sessions weekly, while the control group received health education only. In total, 118 participants completed the 12-month follow-up. Compared with controls, participants in the exercise group showed a significant reduction in epicardial adipose volume, with an absolute difference of 15.15 milliliters. More frequent workouts yielded larger benefits; each additional weekly session corresponded to an extra 3.156-milliliter reduction in cardiac fat volume. After adjusting for baseline levels, the intervention also significantly lowered circulating macrophage colony-stimulating factor levels by 1.75 picograms per milliliter, although other measured pro-inflammatory cytokines showed no significant differences.
Why it matters
Cardiac adiposity and chronic inflammation increase with age, elevating cardiometabolic disease risks. These findings demonstrate that regular exercise can target local cardiac fat depots and attenuate specific inflammatory signaling in older populations.
Caveats
The study was conducted at a single center, and 38 of the original 156 participants did not complete the 12-month follow-up. In addition, weekly exercise frequency explained only a modest proportion of the total variance in epicardial fat reduction.
Written from the paper’s abstract, and every claim checked against it before publishing. Read the paper for the full methods and data.
The paper
A 12-month structured exercise reduces epicardial adipose volume in a frequency-dependent manner and lowers serum M-CSF in community-dwelling older adults: a randomized controlled trial
Xue X, Chen S, Cheng Y et al.
Frontiers in public health · 16 Sep 2026 · Peer-reviewed
- Relevance
- Relevant
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- Human trial
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- Peer-reviewed
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