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Heart Disease

Living with obesity – and what it means for your heart and general health

Obesity is a risk factor for a number of complications. Some of these are cardiovascular, a group that includes coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, stroke, hyperlipidaemia, heart attack and heart failure.1 Obesity is also a leading cause of cardiovascular mortality and morbidity.1 Here is the good news: With appropriate action, supported by professional guidance and advice, the cardiovascular risk factors may be managed and reduce chance of complications.

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Clarifying a few important terms

This blog post is about how obesity affects health, with a particular emphasis on so-called cardiovascular complications of obesity. The last part of that might sound a bit cryptic, so let’s begin by clarifying a few important terms. It’s actually quite simple.

“Cardio” means related to the heart, while “vascular” means related to the blood vessels. 

Thus, cardiovascular complications, for instance, is simply a way to refer to a cluster of issues that primarily affect the heart and blood vessels.

Living with obesity tends to increase the risk of developing cardiovascular complications or even suffering a cardiovascular event such as stroke or heart attack.1

But consider this: Obesity doesn’t define anyone. It’s a condition and a disease for which there are genetic as well as biological, behavioural, psychosocial and environmental reasons2 – true! But that doesn’t make obesity irreversible or inescapable.

A closer look at cardiovascular complications

Obesity is a disease that increases the risk of unintended cardiovascular health consequences3. It happens to be a rather critical one. In fact, obesity is among the leading causes of elevated cardiovascular disease, mortality and morbidity1. This video might help you to understand it better:

Obesity may do more than that

Unfortunately, that’s true. In fact, obesity may increase the risk of developing over 200 complications5, including type 2 diabetes, asthma, cancer, liver and gallbladder disease, sleep apnea, osteoarthritis and gynaecological complications1.

But let’s focus on those affecting the heart and blood vessels such as ischaemic heart disease6, coronary artery disease and hypertension1 – the latter being a cardiovascular risk factor in its own right, potentially leading to stroke, heart attack and heart failure.1

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Admittedly, the relationship between obesity and its potential cardiovascular consequences is a serious one. But every cloud has a silver lining.  

Let’s switch gears and focus instead on the... 

Reasons to be hopeful

While the consequences of living with obesity could be serious, steps towards reducing your risk can be taken. Doctors trained in obesity care know what kind of action yields positive results. We are collectively much smarter about obesity today than we once were.

Many people living with obesity can, for instance, learn from a properly trained obesity care provider. But the opposite is also true. Many doctors can learn from those affected by obesity – about how different treatment strategies are experienced at the individual level, for instance, mentally and physically. You can read more about it here.

A significant step in the direction of a healthier future

The fact that the medical and scientific community have conclusively shown that obesity is a disease is really cause for celebration! Why? Because it means we are significantly closer to being able to address it optimally.

For anyone affected by obesity, reaching out to carefully trained obesity care providers for advice and guidance can make a difference. Such specialists can help outline a personalised weight management strategy – one that takes stock of obesity’s multifactorial nature and doesn’t ask more of you than is appropriate and reasonable.

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Why weight loss is helpful

Doctors have found that weight loss can benefit the heart. For example, losing 5% of one’s body weight has been associated with significant and long-standing health benefits7-19. These include reduced blood pressure20, leading to improved heart health.

And while some complications are more sensitive to weight loss than others, increasing weight loss beyond 5% may lead to additional improvements in obesity-related complications7-19. In a study involving people with type 2 diabetes, weight loss of 5–10%, for instance, was shown to produce improvements in cardiovascular risk factors a year after the weight loss. 

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Continue – or begin – your weight management journey today!

Remember, change starts with you. But it doesn’t have to end with you – not if you do the smart thing and reach out to those who have a professional, scientific understanding of genes, metabolism, human psychology and all the other complexly interwoven factors of obesity. 

By doing that, healthy change can continue to benefit you – in the form of sustained weight loss and reduced cardiovascular risk factors now and in the future.

We wish you success with your next steps to better health.

References
  1. Akil L, Ahmad HA. 2011. Relationships between Obesity and Cardiovascular Diseases in Four Southern States and Colorado. J Health Care Poor Underserved; 22(4 Suppl):  61–72. doi: 10.1353/hpuvv.2011.0166. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3250069/
  2. Lau DCW, Wharton S. Canadian Adult Obesity Clinical  Practice Guidelines: The Science of Obesity. Available from:  https://obesitycanada.ca/guidelines/science
  3. Sullivan PW, Ghushchyan V, Wyatt H, Wu EQ, Hill JO.  2007. Impact of cardiometabolic risk factor clusters on  health-related quality of life in the U.S. Obesity (Silver  Spring); 15(2):511–21. doi: 10.1038/oby.2007.580. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17299125/
  4. Klop B, Elte JWF, Cabezas MC. Dyslipidemia in Obesity:  Mechanisms and Potential Targets. Nutrients. 2013 Apr;  5(4): 1218–1240. doi: 10.3390/nu5041218. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3705344/
  5. Council of the Obesity Society. Obesity as a disease: the  Obesity Society Council resolution. Obesity (Silver Spring).  2008. doi: 10.1038/oby.2008.246. Available from: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1038/o by.2008.246
  6. McPherson R. Obesity and Ischemic Heart Disease: De fining the Link. Circulation Research. 2015;116:570–571. Available from: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/circresa ha.115.305826
  7. Knowler WC, Barrett-Connor E, Fowler SE, et al. Reduc tion in the incidence of type 2 diabetes with lifestyle inter vention or metformin. N Engl J Med. 2002;346:393–403.
  8. Wing RR, Lang W, Wadden TA, et al. Benefits of modest  weight loss in improving cardiovascular risk factors in  overweight and obese individuals with type 2 diabetes. Di abetes Care. 2011;34:1481–1486.
  9. Dattilo AM and Kris-Etherton PM. Effects of weight re duction on blood lipids and lipoproteins: a meta-analysis.  Am J Clin Nutr. 1992;56:320–328.
  10. Coggon D, Reading I, Croft P, et al. Knee osteoarthritis  and obesity. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 2001;25:622–627.
  11. Christensen R, Bartels EM, Astrup A, et al. Effect of  weight reduction in obese patients diagnosed with knee  osteoarthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Ann  Rheum Dis. 2007;66:433–439.
  12. Zelber-Sagi S, Godos J and Salomone F. Lifestyle  changes for the treatment of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: a review of observational studies and intervention  trials. Therap Adv Gastroenterol. 2016;9:392–407.
  13. Glass LM, Dickson RC, Anderson JC, et al. Total body  weight loss of >/= 10 % is associated with improved hepat ic fibrosis in patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.  Dig Dis Sci. 2015;60:1024–1030.
  14. Garvey W, Mechanick J, Brett E, et al. American Associ ation of Clinical Endocrinologists and American College of  Endocrinology comprehensive clinical practice guidelines for medical care of patients with obesity. Endocr Pract.  2016; 22(Suppl 3):1–203.
  15. Lean M, Leslie W, Barnes A, et al. Primary care-led  weight management for remission of type 2 diabetes (Di RECT): an open-label, cluster-randomised trial. Lancet.  2018; 391:541–551.
  16. Benraoune F and Litwin S. Reductions in cardiovascu lar risk after bariatric surgery. Curr Opin Cardiol. 2011; 26:555–561.
  17. Sundström J, Bruze G, Ottosson J, et al. Weight loss  and heart failure: A national study of gastric bypass sur gery versus intensive lifestyle treatment. Circulation. 2017;  135:1577–1585.
  18. Look AHEAD Research Group. Lancet Diabetes Endo crinol. 2016; 4:913–921. Available from: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00017953
  19. Ryan D and Yockey S. Weight loss and improvement in  comorbidity: Differences at 5%, 10%, 15%, and over. Curr  Obes Rep. 2017; 6:187–194.
  20. Garvey WT et al. American Association of Clinical En docrinologists and American College of Endocrinology  Comprehensive Clinical Practice Guidelines for Medical  Care of Patients with Obesity. Endocr Pract. 2016 Jul;22  Suppl 3:1-203.

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