Weight Loss Lowers Blood Pressure
Lose Weight and Lower Your Blood Pressure
A new article in the American Journal of Hypertension shows that weight loss helps reduce blood pressure in all people with high blood pressure - whether they are already on medication or not.
Researchers in Italy looked at the effects of weight changes on blood pressure in 181 overweight hypertensive patients. These people had never been treated with antihypertensive medications, and remained untreated during the 4-year study.
The average body weight of the whole group together did not change much during the study but the average blood pressure level increased slightly as the years went by.
But for individual patients, blood pressure varied directly with changes in body weight.
They also found that changes in body weight paralleled changes in the size of the left-side chambers of the heart. Heart enlargement often follows prolonged hypertension and can lead to heart failure. High body weight increased this risk.
The study showed that heart size decreased in the people who lost weight loss and increased in those whose weight remained unchanged or increased.
So what's the message? It's a bit of a no-brainer really - even a modest degree of weight loss over the long term is highly beneficial in overweight people with high blood pressure.
Losing weight should be considered as the first treatment for overweight people with high blood pressure - and it might be the only treatment that they need.
A new article in the American Journal of Hypertension shows that weight loss helps reduce blood pressure in all people with high blood pressure - whether they are already on medication or not.
Researchers in Italy looked at the effects of weight changes on blood pressure in 181 overweight hypertensive patients. These people had never been treated with antihypertensive medications, and remained untreated during the 4-year study.
The average body weight of the whole group together did not change much during the study but the average blood pressure level increased slightly as the years went by.
But for individual patients, blood pressure varied directly with changes in body weight.
They also found that changes in body weight paralleled changes in the size of the left-side chambers of the heart. Heart enlargement often follows prolonged hypertension and can lead to heart failure. High body weight increased this risk.
The study showed that heart size decreased in the people who lost weight loss and increased in those whose weight remained unchanged or increased.
So what's the message? It's a bit of a no-brainer really - even a modest degree of weight loss over the long term is highly beneficial in overweight people with high blood pressure.
Losing weight should be considered as the first treatment for overweight people with high blood pressure - and it might be the only treatment that they need.
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