Will losing weight lower blood pressure?

With the improvement of living standards, there are more and more obese people. Obesity often causes many physical diseases, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, coronary heart disease, angina pectoris, etc. Therefore, obesity is more harmful to the body. In order to maintain good health, it is best to lose weight. Once the weight drops, the blood pressure will also drop. It can not only ensure the health of the body, but also have a good figure, so it is a great thing.

Survey data show that compared with people with normal weight, obese people aged 20-45 have a 5-6 times increased risk of developing hypertension. Active weight control can significantly reduce the incidence and prevalence of hypertension. The average adult resident in the United States is 4.5 kg overweight. If the average weight of all residents is reduced by 4.5 kg, the blood pressure of 50 million hypertensive patients will be reduced to normal levels, thereby significantly reducing the incidence and mortality and disability rates of coronary heart disease, stroke and kidney disease. Although my country still lacks large-scale statistical data, some small-scale sample survey data also show similar conclusions.

A study of Japanese residents found that among 3652 untreated newly diagnosed patients with mild to moderate hypertension, the average weight loss was 2.9 kg after 8 weeks of weight control, and 1539 patients (42%) had their blood pressure reduced to below 140/90 mmHg. Among 1,922 hypertensive patients who were receiving an antihypertensive drug, the average weight loss was 3.2 kg after 8 weeks of weight control, and 929 (48%) patients were able to stop taking their antihypertensive drugs.

A study based on populations in European and American countries also reached a similar conclusion. The study found that a small amount of weight loss can have a significant effect on blood pressure. Among 800 patients with mild hypertension, their average weight decreased by 2.25 kg within 6 months, and their average diastolic blood pressure decreased by 7 mmHg. The subgroup that lost 4.5 kg had a mean diastolic blood pressure reduction of 11.6 mmHg. People who are taking antihypertensive drugs have a more significant drop in blood pressure after losing weight. Not only can controlling weight lead to a significant drop in blood pressure in overweight or obese people, but moderate weight loss also has a certain blood pressure-lowering effect in hypertensive patients with normal weight. These research results fully demonstrate the importance of weight control in antihypertensive treatment.

The mechanism by which weight loss affects blood pressure is not fully understood. Generally speaking, weight loss is mainly achieved through diet control and increased physical exercise. When controlling your diet, reducing calorie and salt intake can help lower blood pressure, while increasing physical exercise can also have a beneficial effect on blood pressure.

Further research has shown that it is body fat content rather than weight itself that is actually associated with blood pressure levels. Increases in bone mineral content and skeletal muscle mass can increase body weight without causing increases in blood pressure. The higher the proportion of body fat, the closer the relationship between weight and blood pressure.

Therefore, in order to lower blood pressure levels, the most important thing is to reduce body fat content. The distribution characteristics of human body fat are also an important factor affecting blood pressure. Compared with an increase in subcutaneous fat volume, an increase in visceral fat volume (i.e., central obesity) is more likely to lead to increased blood pressure. Waist-to-hip ratio is a simple indicator that reflects the characteristics of fat distribution. The higher the waist-to-hip ratio, the greater the risk of hypertension, heart disease, and stroke events.

The safest, most reasonable and effective way to lose weight is to control diet and increase physical exercise at the same time. It is difficult to effectively lose weight by simply controlling food intake without increasing exercise or simply increasing exercise without controlling calorie intake. More importantly, maintaining an ideal weight not only helps maintain healthy blood pressure, but also effectively reduces the incidence of dyslipidemia, dysglycemia and other cardiovascular risk factors and even the risk level of cardiovascular events.

It should be pointed out that most weight loss drugs are not only unhelpful to physical health, but harmful. Therefore, it is not recommended to use weight loss drugs that have not been approved by the national drug regulatory authorities.

The importance of weight control is not limited to the adult population. Studies have found that the earlier the age of obesity, the more significant its impact on blood pressure levels. Adolescent obesity is a strong predictor of future hypertension, so weight control should start in adolescence. Effective intervention in adolescent obesity is crucial to reducing their risk of future hypertension.

In various future education activities, a healthy lifestyle should be vigorously advocated among young people so that they can develop good eating and exercise habits from an early age. These measures are of positive significance for maintaining normal blood pressure and maintaining their cardiovascular health.