Obesity & Being Overweight is a Concern
Obesity is a condition that can cause many health problems, including high blood pressure. Actually, you don’t have to be obese for your weight to have adverse affects on your blood pressure, just being overweight can cause an unhealthy spike in your blood pressure. According to eMedicineHealth, obesity is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) greater than 30 kg/m. A BMI of 25-30 kg/m is considered overweight (BMI=weight in pounds x 703/ height in inches). Hypertension, or chronic high blood pressure, is one of many conditions that can decrease life expectancy in adults therefore, it is very important and simple to eat healthy and exercise.
The Connection Between High Blood Pressure & Being Overweight
Studies have shown that overweight people have higher blood volume and an increased production of insulin. Obesity induces a high secretion of insulin in trying to decrease the excessive sugar concentration in the blood. This insulin secretion is very high compared to someone who is not obese. High blood pressure may also be caused by a lack of exercise, high intake of alcohol and vitamin deficiencies. The good thing about obesity and high blood pressure, is that people can take steps through exercise and healthy eating to reduce their weight and high blood pressure. Since obesity is a serious health issue, many doctors and scientists have been looking into the causes of obesity beyond the obvious iss of unhealthy eating and an inactive lifestyle.
A Recent Study Reported in Medical Express that May Eventually Assist with Regulating Weight
According to Medical Express, Dr. Nina Balthasar, one of the lead authors of this study on the brain’s regulation of body weight and a researcher at the University’s School of Physiology and Pharmacology, said: “Obesity is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease with recent statistics showing that obese adults are three to four times more likely to develop high blood pressure.”
“In order to curb the escalating incidence of obesity and obesity-related diseases, a primary prevention goal must be to understand the physiological processes underlying our vulnerability to weight gain—knowledge that is central to the development of novel, effective therapies.”
Obesity and its related conditions such as “type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and stroke constitute the biggest killer in western society.” New findings, published in Cell and which Dr.Balthasar was involved with, “have identified a target that could hold the key to developing safe therapies to treat obesity and its associated conditions.” Medical Express further explained that, although recent research has begun to unravel some of the pathways that control how information is processed by our nervous system regulating body weight and cardiovascular function, the exact mechanisms through which signals are sensed by the brain and translated into co-ordinated metabolic and cardiovascular responses remain unclear.
Learn More & Take Steps to Manage Your Weight and Blood Pressure
To Learn More about the recent study on obesity-associated high blood pressure, please turn to the Medical Express article, the source of this post, which will provide a more in depth analysis. This LowerPressure article is a summary of the Medical Express post and additional information from other sources, as noted by the links, concerning the connection between high blood pressure and being over weight.
February is heart month and it is LowerPressure’s mission to help you, our community, to think HEART and provide you with the necessary information about heart disease and its relationship to high blood pressure. The same way obesity is a major culprit of high blood pressure, weight management plays a significant role in reducing high blood pressure. And guess what? It is not so difficult to achieve as long as you take it one step at a time. For a great resource on better eating for high blood pressure check out the Dash Eating Plan, which was recently rated as the number one eating plan in the United States and it was originally designed to reduce high blood pressure.
For simple, easy to do exercises to help lower your blood pressure, check out this article from WebMD that we received great feedback on when we last posted it on our Facebook Page: RESPeRATE.
Keep us posted on your progress and be an inspiration to others by sharing your story.
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