Obesity Affects Response To Blood Pressure & Cholesterol Meds
Obesity is already considered to be a risk factor for developing diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure.
But have you ever considered whether obesity can affect how well your blood pressure and cholesterol medicines work?
Canadian researchers decided to study that issue in obese people who were already at high risk for stroke and heart disease.
The researchers knew that high-risk obese individuals often didn’t reach their cholesterol and blood pressure targets even with medication.
So does body mass index (BMI) have something to do with it?
Over 7300 Canadian patients with a history of cardiovascular problems participated in this study from 2001 to 2004.
Forty-four percent of the patients were obese, 38% were overweight, and the remaining 18% were normal weight.
After controlling for other factors such as gender and age, the researchers discovered that obese patients were less likely to reach their blood pressure and cholesterol (HDL only) targets than overweight or normal weight participants.
LDL cholesterol targets didn’t seem to pose a problem.
While they can’t prove a cause-effect relationship, the study results suggest highly that it’s less likely that you’ll reduce your blood pressure or cholesterol to recommended levels until you lose the extra weight.
So obese individuals with cardiovascular disease may want to see their doctors about starting a weight loss program, especially if these patients are taking blood pressure or cholesterol medication.
Technorati Tags: obesity, lose weight, weight loss, blood pressure, cholesterol, cardiovascular disease