Hypertension and Obesity

What is Hypertension?

Hypertension or the high blood pressure refers to the pressure that the amount of blood the heart pumps and the amount of resistance to blood flow in the arteries blood applies. Most people with high blood pressure generally have no signs or any symptoms, even if blood pressure readings reach dangerously high levels.

Hypertension and Obesity

The most important issue to remember is that obesity is associated with hypertension, and hypertension is associated with numerous other metabolic diseases that can affect the overall health and the life expectancy of an individual. Anti-hypertension medications should be started if hypertension is diagnosed along with weight-loss. A significant fall in blood pressure may permit a decrease in the number and the amount of medication taken. Prevention by maintaining a good lifestyle would be better than any drug.

Use lifestyle changes with weight reduction by maintaining BMI, DASH diet by eating fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy products with reduced content of saturated and total fat, a decrease in dietary sodium, an increase in physical activity for about 30 minutes per day and moderate consumption of alcohol. The weight-loss is the most important step in reducing both hypertension and improving a better and healthy life.

Obesity-related hypertension often is accompanied by:

Organ damage can be done by obesity hypertension. The elevated blood pressure due to obesity can cause long-term damage to the body's vital organs and their functions.

Diastolic dysfunction is evident early in obesity and characterized by impaired ventricular filling dynamics and relaxation and there may also be systolic dysfunction and an enlarged heart with prolonged obesity. Obesity and hypertension worsen the symptoms of left ventricular hypertrophy in a synergistic manner, and this translates into a greater risk of congestive heart failure. The weight loss improves systolic and diastolic function and reduces left ventricular mass.

There is a potential association between obesity hypertension and obstructive sleep apnea. Obesity is an important risk factor for obstructive sleep apnea but this may be more closely associated with the enlarged abdomen than overall body obesity. Obstructive sleep apnea has been linked to hypertension in both epidemiological studies and clinical.

Complications leading to uncontrolled high blood pressure include:

Heart attack or stroke:  High blood pressure can cause hardening and thickening of the arteries known as atherosclerosis, which can lead to a heart attack, stroke or various other complications.

Aneurysm: The increased blood pressure can cause blood vessels to bulge and weaken, forming an aneurysm. If an aneurysm ruptures, it can be life-threatening.

Heart failure: To pump blood against the higher pressure in the vessels, the heart has to work harder by causing the walls of the heart's pumping chamber to thicken known as the left ventricular hypertrophy. Eventually, the thickened muscle may have a hard time pumping enough blood, which later can lead to heart failure.

Weakened and narrowed blood vessels in the kidneys can prevent these organs from functioning normally.

In the eyes causes thickening, narrowing or torn blood vessels which can result in vision loss.

Metabolic syndrome: This syndrome is a cluster of disorders from the body's metabolism, including increased waist circumference; high triglycerides; low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, the "good" cholesterol; high blood pressure and high insulin levels. These conditions will likely later develop diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.

The uncontrolled high blood pressure affects the ability to remember, think and learn and further cause’s trouble with memory or understanding concepts is more common in people with high blood pressure.

Dementia:  Narrowed or blocked arteries can limit blood flow to the brain, leading to a certain type of dementia known as vascular dementia. A stroke interrupts the blood flow to the brain which also causes vascular dementia.

The tantalizing link between obesity and depression

What is Depression?

Depression also is known as the major depressive disorder is a common and serious medical illness which negatively affects how a person feels, the way they think and how they act and it is curable. Depression causes feelings of sadness and a loss of interest in activities once a person enjoyed. It will lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems and may decrease a person’s ability to function at work and at home. Defining depression has always been a puzzle. Many people are depressed but mostly unaware of it.

To understand depression is considering the two consisting factors or primary components. The Depression is the psychological or “cognitive” component which affects the mood, and the physical or “somatic” component which influences areas such as appetite and sleep and viewing depression as sometimes that helps to determine the primary cause of the problem.

Both obesity and depression have become a significant global health problem.

However, based on observational studies has not been able to demonstrate whether obesity causes depression, as there are many competing factors to consider. Obesity is a risk factor for a number of conditions, and it might be dealing with other health issues which increases the likelihood of becoming depressed, rather than the obesity being the cause and some researchers have argued that the relationship might be vice versa: depression is a risk for obesity.

Obesity might make depression occur more likely at initially, but once depressive symptoms arise, they might be compound obesity by making it harder for the individual to exercise.

Childhood obesity and Depression:

Childhood obesity can lead to a host of physical problems in children and adolescents, including type II diabetes, heart disease, and stroke, the latter becoming more frequently seen in teens and young adults. Sleep apnea which is caused by obesity and early onset of puberty is also seen. Aside from the physical problems stemming from obesity, parents should also be on alert for depression in their children.

Children who are obese at ages 10 through 13 have an 80% chance of being obese as an adult, However, along with that will come to the serious diseases caused by obesity, resulting in adult depression. The causes of obesity are complex and include biological, behavioral, genetic, and cultural factors. Obesity occurs when a person eats more calories than the body actually burns up.

The genomic study directly links depression to obesity

Researchers separated the psychological impact of obesity and the effect of obesity-related health problems on depression by selecting and testing genes associated with higher BMI and lower risk of related disease like diabetes. These genes were which are strongly associated with depression as those genes associated with higher BMI and diabetes. According to this, being overweight might causes depression in both with and without related health issues especially in women.

Brain chemicals are both involved in mood and weight gain which often overlaps. Hormones for weight metabolism and depression, including stress hormones, might be a major play in increasing body weight. These hormones including cortisol which is also known as the so-called stress hormone, and leptin, which also regulates the body fat storage.

Treatment

Some weight-management therapies can lead to emotional ups and downs that can cause or worsen depression. A “diet” has a lot of opportunities for failure or setbacks, which can challenge a person who’s already dealing with mental health issues.

However, with a team of experts could guide, encourage, and hold accountable, it’s possible to find a treatment plan that works for both conditions.

Depression and obesity are both chronic conditions that require long-term care and attention and really important to focus on changing lifestyle behaviors.