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Effect Of Weight- Being Overweight Or Underweight- On Heart

Whenever the conversation about affect of weight on heart arises, we veer towards obesity, and rightfully so since we’ve all heard that being overweight is bad for our heart. But being severely underweight is just as bad. Heart disease is a common complication among Americans, and even a cause of death in individuals with anorexia.

How weight impacts the heart?
Increased body weight causes high blood pressure (HBP) (a major risk factor for heart attack, stroke and sudden cardiac death). Increased body weight is also associated with high cholesterol (“bad” cholesterol) and low HDL (“good” cholesterol), which plays a key role in cardiovascular disease. Obesity makes it more likely to get diabetes (another major heart disease risk factor). In addition to everything, fat cells, especially those in the abdominal area are active metabolically that causes inflammation in your body, which can be measured by the amount of C-reactive protein in your blood — another risk factor for heart disease.

Now comes the more controversial aspect of how being underweight is bad for the ticker. Although some research suggest little bit increase in cardiovascular disease as one becomes more underweight, but there’s no direct correlation. It’s not the low weight itself that’s bad for the ticker since individuals with low body weight, a body mass index (BMI) below 18, may already be sick and not eating because they’re unhealthy, and such people can have various health issues, including cardiovascular disease, because of malnutrition.

BMI For Heart Health- A normal BMI, between 20 and 25, is healthiest. Risk of heart disease increases with increase in BMI. A BMI of 25 to 30 (considered overweight) has a higher risk while a BMI of 30 to 35 (considered obese) is even higher. Serious risk accompanies a BMI higher than 35. Waist-to-hip ratio may be as important alongside BMI since the higher the ratio, the greater your risk of cardiovascular disease.

Tips to improve heart health:
It doesn’t take a drastic change in weight to improve the health of your ticker, losing just five to six pounds can lower your blood pressure by 5 mmHg. Lowering your body weight by just 2 to 5 percent will raise your HDL and reduce triglycerides by as much as 20 percent. Even a modest amount of weight loss makes a huge difference, including danger for diabetes. You need to keep in mind that obesity happens over time, so you need to recognize weight gain as it’s happening gradually and put a stop before it goes out of control. The sooner you control your weight, the easier it will be since losing five pounds in a month or two isn’t a big thing, but losing 20 to 30 pounds can seem daunting.
The best way to handle out-of-hospital cardiac emergencies is by getting CPR certified. To sign up for a course at CPR Tampa in Palm Harbor, call on 727-240-9404.
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