Obesity and Heart Disease

Though middle-income countries like India have traditionally been counted among nations with an underweight population, India has recently broken into the ranks of the top 5 obese countries in the world. According to the latest National Family Health Survey 5 (NFHS-5), nearly 24% of women and 23% of men are overweight or obese (BMI of 25 or more).

So why is this a cause of worry in the medical community and for us in general? According to WHO,excess weight has contributed to over 2.8 million deaths in 2021 from non-communicable diseases that include cardiovascular/ heart disease, diabetes, respiratory disorders, and cancer among others.

We’ll discuss here how obesity and heart disease are linked in particular.

What causes excessive weight gain or obesity?

• Poor dietary choices and consumption of processed and “junk foods.”
• Lack of regular exercise
• Sugar and fat content of everyday food
• Genetic predisposition: Asians and Indians, in particular, are prone to fat collection around the belly. Collection of belly fat is more dangerous than weight anywhere else in the body. This is why Indians, and other people prone to central obesity, should consider using a BMI point of 23 instead of 25 to measure obesity.
• Stress
• Lack of good-quality sleep
• Misleading food labelling that market unhealthy foods as healthy or at least harmless food.

The weight-heart disease connection

Excess body fat, especially around the waist/ belly, is risky for your health. Most people tend to worry about visible fat, the fat that sits under the skin (subcutaneous fat). The bigger health risk comes from the fat that sits around our internal organs such as the heart and liver – visceral fat.

Visceral fat significantly increases risk factors that are closely associated with heart/ cardiovascular and circulatory diseases.

There are three major ways in which being overweight/ obese is dangerous for your heart:

1. Obesity increases the risk of coronary artery disease, heart attack, and stroke

Excess weight increases cholesterol levels in the blood, especially the harmful kind known as LDL cholesterol. When you are overweight, there is a tendency for cholesterol (plaque) to build up in your arteries and clog them. This can cause your arteries to become blocked and damaged, restricting proper blood flow to your heart. This condition is known as coronary artery disease.

This relationship is direct – obesity increases the risk of heart disease by 28%. A blockage in your arteries can cause a heart attack unexpectedly. If this blockage occurs in an artery going to your brain, you can suffer from a stroke or vascular dementia.

2. Obesity is the leading risk factor for type-2 diabetes

Carrying weight around your middle makes it harder for your body to use insulin and control glucose (sugar) levels in your blood. High sugar levels in your blood can damage arteries and significantly increase the risk of heart and circulatory diseases. In fact, obesity accounts for 80-85% of the risk of developing type-2 diabetes.

Type-2 diabetes, in turn, increases the risk of heart disease by two to four times. If you have diabetes but have not yet been diagnosed with heart disease, it is very important that you begin to control your weight immediately.

3. Obesity can cause high blood pressure

As your body weight increases, so can your blood pressure. Overweight people need a greater blood supply to provide oxygen and nutrients to parts of the body, increasing the risk of high blood pressure (hypertension). High blood pressure or hypertension is a common cause of heart attacks, which are more common in overweight people.

Lowering your weight and heart risk

You should be concerned about excess weight even if you have not been diagnosed with hypertension or diabetes. There may be “silent” heart damage at play that is simply not symptomatic yet.

The following can help you lower your heart risk:

• Control or lose weight if you are overweight (BMI > 25). Reducing excess weight is the best long-term strategy to reduce heart risk or risk of heart failure.
• Regularly test and monitor your key heart-risk indicators such as BMI, blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol (HDL, LDL, and total).
• If you are obese, watch out for signs typical of heart failure. These symptoms include fatigue, shortness of breath, and irregular heart rhythms (heartbeats that you can feel).
• Every gram of weight loss helps. For every 5-point increase in your BMI points, the risk of heart failure increases by 32%.

The link between excess weight and heart health is direct – obesity increases the risk of heart disease significantly. Though you may find the medical advice to eat healthy, exercise, and lose weight an overused trope, it is sound advice when it comes to the health of your heart. Your doctors understand that it is not easy to lose weight with the trappings of our modern, mostly sedentary lives. However, you must know that every bit of weight you lose reduces your risk of developing heart disease. The Sagar Heart and Vascular Institute has the best cardiologists in Bangalore. Consult our experts to know more about how obesity can affect your cardiovascular weight and how to control your heart risk.