Obesity Can Cause Heart Failure!

For year doctors and physicians believed that heart failure in a person with obesity was caused by outlying risk factors. These outlying risk factors were issues like high blood pressure, diabetes, CAD. But further tests today have shown that obesity in itself and not the other outlying risk factors leads to heart failure. Which means, that if you are obese you are at risk of heart failure, whether you have any of the other outside risk factors or not. Obesity itself can be a cause for heart failure. The tests have also shown that excess body weight considerably increases the risk of heart failure, even in those not specifically deemed obese by their physicians. In a Heart Study done for 14 years, those who were just considered overweight had a 34% bigger risk of developing heart failure than some not overweight and the percentage went up to a huge 104% for those who are obese. Meaning someone obese has a 104% greater risk, than someone not overweight, of developing heart failure.

Someone might want to know what defines obesity? The word obesity is a term meaning, a person that has too much body fat. Our bodies should be made up of the correct portions of water, fat, protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals. Within an individual diagnosed as obese, their body will have too large an amount of fat.

A couple of quick ways for someone to estimate their body fat is to measure their waistline or calculate their BMI. The waist measurement should be 35” or under for women and 40” or under for men. To calculate your BMI use this formula:

BMI = [weight / (height x height)] x 703

A BMI reading over 30 is considered obese.

Doctors and physicians and scientists are now saying that even if you feel great while you are obese, they have found that inside your body will probably be very profound signs of chemical changes and of damage being done on your heart. These signs, though silent, are so important as to urgently impress upon the doctors to encourage their patients that the time to lose weight, exercise and change eating habits is now before the damage to the heart increases.

There is no quick or easy way to fix the problem of obesity or of being overweight. The solution sounds so simple:you must burn/exercise and use more calories than you take in by eating. But the reality for most people is that while the words are very simple, the job of getting it done is very hard. That is why 1 out of 3 people in is obese. Most doctors will tell you the best way to get to a better weight will be through healthy eating habits and life style changes. Diets, doctors will tell you do not help someone who has taken off weight, maintain that weight loss. There are a high percentage of people who have succeeded in taking off excess weight, just to gain it right back again.

Tags: heart failure, obesity, weight loss