. . . a guest blog from Joyce Del Rosario (see below)
Heart disease is the number one cause of death in America.
That’s right – it’s bigger than cancer. In fact, it’s bigger than the next five leading causes combined: chronic lower respiratory diseases, stroke, accidents, Alzheimer’s disease, and diabetes.
Because heart disease and heart attacks are so prevalent in our culture, it’s vitally important that we learn everything we can about what causes them and what we can do to prevent the conditions. One of the biggest contributing factors to a person developing heart disease is whether or not they suffer from obesity.
Contrary to popular belief, obesity doesn’t just mean that someone is overweight; it is a very specific term used to describe someone who is at least 20 percent above his or her ideal weight. Obese people have a higher chance of suffering from health problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, and heart disease, just to name a few.
Why are heart attacks so prevalent in obese individuals? Here are seven reasons that describe how the condition creates a perfect storm for heart problems.
It makes your triglyceride and blood cholesterol levels go up. Cholesterol is essentially fatty molecules that build up in your blood vessels. These molecules constrict the blood vessels, making it harder for your heart to pump them through your body.
It raises your blood pressure levels and leads to hypertension. The result of higher cholesterol is that your blood pressure will rise. And high blood pressure means that your heart has to work extra hard just to get the same amount of blood around your body.
It adds more mass to your body. Not only does obesity cause your heart to work harder to provide your body with the same amount of blood – the extra mass means that the blood has to be flowing through a greater amount of area.
It reduces HDL cholesterol. Since high cholesterol is linked with heart problems, you would think that obesity lowering HDL cholesterol would be a good thing. Unfortunately, this particular type of cholesterol is actually helpful in keeping your risk of stroke and heart disease down.
It may cause diabetes. Carrying around extra weight makes you much more likely to develop type-2 diabetes, which can worsen all of the symptoms listed above, thus increasing your chances of suffering from heart disease or even a heart attack.
It can lead to left ventricular hypertrophy. What’s that? It’s where the wall of the heart’s left ventricle becomes thicker and harder, eventually leading to potential heart failure.
It’s associated with metabolic syndrome X. This syndrome is a disorder that leads to serious abnormalities with lipids, and scientists believe that much of the heart failure in overweight patients may be due to a combination of this condition and left ventricular hypertrophy.
With obesity being associated with all of these dangerous factors and conditions, the question then becomes what can be done to alleviate the problem. The answer is simple – but not easy. People need to eat better and stay more active.
Even a moderate 30 minute workout every day can help to keep you in better shape and allow you to maintain your weight – as long as you stick to a healthy diet. Even better, exercising more will help your body to fortify its defenses so that you’ll be less susceptible to foreign invaders that cause sickness.
But even more than exercise, the key has to be diet. Americans eat far too much sugar, sodium, meat, and dairy, all of which can contribute to weight gain and heart problems. Instead, we need to rethink the typical American plate so that it includes smaller portions of healthier cuts of meat, and far larger servings of fruits and especially vegetables.
About the Author:
Joyce Del Rosario is part of the team behind Open Colleges, one of Australia’s leading providers of Nutrition Courses. When not working, Joyce blogs about health and fitness.