High Blood Pressure: Dr Muffazal Lakdawala OPENS UP on the link between obesity and hypertension

High Blood Pressure aka Hypertension is one of the common health issues across the world. Did you know that by 2025 an estimated 1.56 billion people worldwide may suffer from high blood pressure? Yes, that's right! This means that there could be cardiovascular diseases and other health complications as high BP leads to many health issues including stroke, heart attack, kidney, brain and eye complications among others. Speaking of the factors which can lead to high BP, stress, genetics, high levels of sodium, lack of calcium, lack of potassium and less physical activity are the few ones. And being overweight is also directly related to hypertension. 

How obesity and high blood pressure are linked?

Being overweight causes high blood pressure as more you weight, more blood you will be needing to supply oxygen and nutrients to your body. And this leads to creation of pressure. However, bringing down weight can help you to tackle high levels of blood pressure as the strain on the heart and blood vessels will be less. As per the Framingham Heart Study, around 78% of the hypertension cases in men and 65% in women can be attributed to obesity. Unfortunately, as per the International Obesity Task Force at present, around 1.1 billion adults are overweight. Aside from high BP, other medical issues that are associated with obesity are reduced life expectancy, diabetes, osteoarthritis, cholesterol, sleep apnea and cancer among others.

Here's what doctor has to say

When we asked Dr. Muffazal Lakdawala, Founder & Chief Surgeon at Digestive Health Institute by Dr. Muffi to comment on the link of obesity and high blood pressure, to which he said, "High blood pressure has a direct link to obesity. For obese patients, I recommend losing weight through bariatric surgery if conventional methods of weight loss don’t show any positive results. Bariatric surgery is the most effective method of not only reducing weight but also reducing co-morbidities like hypertension, diabetes, sleep apnea and many more. For those who have not tried any methods of weight-loss, I recommend visiting a nutritionist or a sound weight-loss expert who can help you with a detailed nutrition and exercise plan to reduce weight."

Preventive ways

A few pounds of weight loss can lead to a significant drop in blood pressure. As per the study, which included a four-year follow-up of 181 overweight hypertensive patients, they saw that a 10 percent weight-loss led to an average of a 4.3/3.8 mmHg fall in blood pressure. Aside from weight loss, there are several natural and effective ways to bring down elevated levels of high BP. Inclusion of potassium-rich food items, daily physical activity, reduction in the intake of salt and junk, processed food items among others will help you. One should also ideally follow the DASH diet and decrease the consumption of alcohol as well.