Reasons Why Weight Loss Can Lead to Better Cardiovascular Health

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Cardiovascular health is imperative to a long and healthy, high quality life. The Cardiovascular system is responsible for pumping all the necessary nutrients, electrolytes and even any medications we need for our body. It is comprised of the heart and the veins that deliver the plasma that the heart pumps.

Health Issues of Today

There are many reasons for poor cardiovascular performance. Some congenital heart diseases are unavoidable such as valve weaknesses or prolapsed. Some people may over stress their hearts by living in areas that are hard on their cardiovascular system such as high altitudes. Although most humans have an amazing ability to adapt given enough time.

In our modern era, our weight has a great deal to do with our cardiovascular health, specifically being overweight.  According to weight loss clinic, heart Disease is currently the number one killer of Americans and being overweight has a great deal to do with that.

Being overweight taxes most of your body systems, but it put an especially hard burden on your cardiovascular system because your heart has to work harder to pump blood and plasma to the extremities of your body. This increases your blood pressure because your heart has to work harder. As it works harder, like any muscle, it strains. However, this also puts strain on your blood vessels.

In addition, the diet that causes you to be overweight generally includes more insoluble fats; therefore, increases the lipids in your blood, or LDL levels. This is what causes arterial plaque and blockages.

Cardiovascular Health and Weight

But, being overweight doesn’t just stress your heart and blood vessels, it can cause sleep apnea, insomnia, body aches and joint damage all of which will keep you from exercising, which is exactly what you need to do in order to be healthy.

If you are a person, particularly a woman who carries fat around your waist, it can promote higher cortisone levels, which directly increase your blood pressure, as well as causing inflammation problems in your arteries. This can affect your arterial wall’s healthy functions, making it difficult then impossible to release oxygen necessary for healing to your body. This can result in many problems from acute inflammation to renal failure.

Given all of this, the reasons why weight loss is important should be evident. Losing weight counter acts much of these problems. If one follows a healthy diet and a regular exercise routine, they will sleep better, be less stressed and lose some of the weight causing stress on their bodies.

Studies show that as little as 5 – 10% weight loss can make a big difference in cardiovascular health. This in encouraging because one need not worry so much about meeting an unobtainable weight. It is enough to change 5 – 10% of where you are right now.

The important thing is as you do this, you will feel better and feeling better means you will do more things, which will in turn improve your health.

Currently, doctors are moving away from assigning height/weight indexes to patients (although they are still used sometimes) and instead using lab results and blood pressure tests to see how you are being impacted, which for a lot of people is less stressful and more rewarding.

This is good news because being overwhelmed often keeps people from doing the very thing they need to do to get better. In this case exercise. Most physicians recommend starting off slow with simple walking or other activities you enjoy such as yoga or gardening. As this becomes easier add 5 more minutes at a time.

Also, eating less processed food is important. It is not necessary to give up your favorite foods to lose weight, but cook “real” food. The prepping and planning actually go a long way to help you know what you are actually eating and how much of it. Cooking classes are almost always available at local co-ops and health food stores.

The important thing is to get started. The body is amazing and it can repair most damage we do to it. However, we have to change our habits to give it the tools it needs. More Kale is better than an arterial stent any day. And, if you plant it in your garden, you are getting exercise too.