Dropping a few pounds is good for your blood pressure

For the millions of Americans who are overweight, new research provides another reason to resolve to shed a few pounds.  It seems that even modest weight loss can lead to long-term reduction in blood pressure.

The study included nearly 1,200 overweight men and women aged 30 to 54 who had blood pressure in the upper range of normal, meaning that they were at risk of developing high blood pressure, or hypertension (140/90 or greater).

Overall, participants in the weight-loss group shed pounds, while those in the control group gained weight. At 6, 18 and 36 months after the study began, blood pressure was significantly lower in the weight-loss group than in the control group.

In the one-fifth of people who lost the most weight, diastolic blood pressure and systolic blood pressure dropped an average of 7 and 5 points, respectively. In contrast, diastolic pressure dropped only 0.7 points and systolic pressure rose 2.5 points in those in the bottom one-fifth of weight loss group.

The researchers also report that people in the weight-loss group were less likely to develop high blood pressure.

Adding weight is bad for your blood pressure

But the drop in high blood pressure disappeared when participants regained the weight they had lost, the report indicates. In people who lost weight only to regain it, blood pressure readings crept back up to nearly the same level as they had been before they lost weight.

Source:  Annals of Internal Medicine 2001;134:1-11, 72-74

Why does higher weight increase blood pressure?

Excess weight makes the heart work harder.  Your heart doesn’t get bigger if your body does.  If your body gets bigger, then you have more and bigger cells.  That means that you need more miles of blood vessels to reach all of those cells and nourish them.

If there are more blood vessels that are required to support a bigger body, the heart often has to work harder.  This is one more reason to maintain a healthy weight.

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