Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsConnectionCan Obesity Cause Hypertension?Obesity-Induced HypertensionTreatmentIn ChildrenPrevention
Table of ContentsView All
View All
Table of Contents
Connection
Can Obesity Cause Hypertension?
Obesity-Induced Hypertension
Treatment
In Children
Prevention
Obesity is a medical condition that can present a range of health complications, including high blood pressure (hypertension). Excess weight increases the heart’s workload, straining the heart and leading to problems like high blood pressure.
A higher body mass index (BMI) is becoming more common, and severe obesity—defined as a BMI of 40 or greater—has more than doubled over the past 20 years. More than 40% of American adults struggle with obesity, and an additional 10% have severe obesity.
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BMI and Your Health
Understanding the Connection Between Weight and Blood Pressure
Your heart is the hardest-working muscle in your body. It pumps nearly 2,000 gallons of blood through your body every day. However, body size, cholesterol level, circulation, and other factors can make the heart’s work more difficult.
Any obstruction or issue that interferes with blood flow increases the demand on your heart. Higher body fat levels have been directly linked to increased blood pressure for decades. There are several reasons for this. A higher body weight can make it harder for your heart to pump blood. Increasedcholesteroland fatty deposits in your blood vessels make your heart push blood through with more force, causing high blood pressure. Today, obesity is linked to between 65% and 78% of primary hypertension cases.
Experts know that there is a relationship between obesity andhypertension. However, there are several ways that obesity can lead to hypertension.
One study that followed a group of obese women for 14 years revealed that BMI was the most substantial risk factor for developing hypertension and that women with obesity (a BMI of ≥30) were five times more likely to have high blood pressure than women with a BMI of 23 and lower.
Obesity vs. Overweight
“Overweight” and “obese” are often used interchangeably, but these terms signal different levels of excess weight. BMI is imperfect, but it’s the most efficient tool healthcare providers can use to gauge weight and excessive body fat.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO):
This distinction is important because each level carries specific health risks.
What’s Obesity-Induced Hypertension?
Obesity-induced hypertension is high blood pressure linked to body mass and related complications. The sections below discuss some of the physiological issues that contribute to obesity-induced hypertension.
Sympathetic Nervous System
Yoursympathetic nervous system (SNS)controls your body’s response to stress or physical challenges. It activates your flight-or-fight response when danger is perceived. In people with obesity, SNS activity is increased. An overactive SNS can increase heart rate and cardiac output—the amount of blood your heart can pump in a minute. Increased cardiac output can put a strain on your heart.
Studies show that even moderate weight gain can increase SNS activity, though it measures highest in people with both obesity and hypertension.
Renin-Angiotensin-Aldosterone System
Therenin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS)is a hormone system responsible for regulating blood pressure, fluids and electrolytes, and vascular resistance (the force the vascular system exerts on circulating blood).SNS stimulation increases the production and release of hormones in this system, contributing to increased blood pressure.
Renal Compression
Increased fatty tissue—especially around the abdomen—can make space inside the body tight. As space shrinks and pressure increases, people with obesity can experience compression of various organs, including the kidneys, which are part of the renal system.Compressed kidneys cause increased pressure in the renal arteries.
Leptin Resistance
When your leptin levels are chronically high, your body resists it. When this happens, the body is unable to tell when you’re full, which can contribute to obesity.
Insulin Resistance
As with leptin, chronically high blood glucose levels lead to increased production of insulin. When your body becomes too used to high amounts of insulin, you can develop a resistance to that as well.
Insulin resistanceis common in people with obesity, and it can make hypertension worse due to its triggering effects on the SNS and RAAS systems. Insulin can open blood vessels to help decrease blood pressure, so people with insulin resistance have their blood vessels constantly constricted. This can worsen high blood pressure. Insulin resistance can also make it more difficult to lose weight—which is one of the primary methods for treating high blood pressure.
Does Sugar Raise Blood Pressure?
How Is Hypertension Treated in People With Obesity?
Regardless of your body size, weight, BMI, gender, age, or race, lifestyle changes are the first recommendation your healthcare provider will make to reduce your blood pressure.
In earlystages of hypertension, lifestyle changes may be enough to lower your blood pressure to safe levels. If your hypertension is more advanced or lifestyle changes haven’t worked for you, your healthcare provider might add one or more medications.
Lifestyle Changes
Getting regular exercise is one of the first things you can do to help get your blood pressure down to a healthy range. If you aren’t already active, start slowly. Even something as simple as taking a walk each day can make a difference.
Physical activity offers many benefits. It can help lower your blood pressure, lose weight, and improve other aspects of your cardiovascular health.
Other lifestyle changes to consider that could benefit both your weight and blood pressure include things like:
Diet or Exercise: Which One Is Better for Managing Blood Pressure?
Dietary Changes
Dietary changes can help control your weight and your blood pressure. Decreasing your intake is one aspect of this, but it’s also important to consider what kinds of foods you are eating.
A heart-healthy diet includes plenty of foods like:
It’s important to incorporate these into your daily diet but also avoid things like:
Can Weight Loss Cure Hypertension?Losing just 10 pounds can be enough to help reverse some weight-related health problems, including high blood pressure, according to the American Heart Association. Weight gain is linked to a greater risk of high blood pressure, and one study found that women who gained 50 or more pounds were five times more likely to develop high blood pressure than women who maintained their weight.
Can Weight Loss Cure Hypertension?
Losing just 10 pounds can be enough to help reverse some weight-related health problems, including high blood pressure, according to the American Heart Association. Weight gain is linked to a greater risk of high blood pressure, and one study found that women who gained 50 or more pounds were five times more likely to develop high blood pressure than women who maintained their weight.
Medications
Even with diet and lifestyle changes, you may needmedicationsto help control your blood pressure. There are several different kinds of antihypertensive medications, and finding the right choice for you may take some time. Your healthcare provider will work with you to find the best treatment, which usually involves mixing one or more different types of blood pressure medications.
Hypertension (High Blood Pressure) Treatment
Surgery
Surgery is not a top choice when it comes to managing high blood pressure. There are many risks to any type of surgery, and surgical techniques to reduce blood pressure don’t work for everyone. One method is to destroy some of the nerves in your renal artery with the goal of decreasing the effects of the RAAS.
Other surgeries can help control hormone levels that contribute to high blood pressure, but because hypertension has several causes, a single surgery may not resolve it completely. Metabolic and other weight losssurgeriesare also an option, but weight loss doesn’t guarantee other problems will go away completely. Even with surgery, you may need to continue with lifestyle changes and medications.
Being Overweight Doubles Your Chances of Having a Stroke
Hypertension in Children With Obesity
As with adults, childhood obesity is on the rise, and along with it comes an increase in pediatric hypertension. Roughly 20% of American children are considered obese, and 4% have hypertension that is linked to body mass.
Identifying and addressing obesity andhypertensionin children is critical to preventing long-term organ damage and other chronic diseases. Management of obesity and hypertension is similar in both adults and children, and it’s important that pediatricians be part of the plan.
Preventing Hypertension in People With Obesity
Maintaining a healthy diet and lifestyle can help you avoid developing high blood pressure, but if you are struggling with obesity, it might not be enough. You can have a higher BMI and still be fit and active, but research suggests that this still isn’t enough to avoid many of the health complications related to weight.
If you are struggling with your weight or BMI, talk to your healthcare provider about what you can do to lose weight and improve your overall cardiovascular health.
Summary
Obesity is a known contributor to high blood pressure, among other health risks. Your weight can impact increased body fat, changes in metabolism and hormones, and other processes that help regulate your blood pressure.
If you are trying to manage your weight and/or blood pressure, talk to your healthcare team about the best way to manage each of these concerns. Weight loss can help reduce your blood pressure, but you may need to consider other treatments, as well.
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17 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Adult obesity facts.Powell-Wiley T, Poirier P, Burke LE, et al.Obesity and cardiovascular disease: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association.Circulation. 2021;143(21):e984-e1010. doi:10.1161/CIR.0000000000000973Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.BMI a poor metric for measuring people’s health, says experts.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Body mass index (BMI).Shariq OA, McKenzie TJ.Obesity-related hypertension: a review of pathophysiology, management, and the role of metabolic surgery.Gland Surg. 2020;9(1):80-93. doi:10.21037/gs.2019.12.03World Health Organization.Obesity.Trammel JE, Sapra A.Physiology, systemic vascular resistance. [Updated 2023 Jul 10]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2024. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK556075/American Heart Association.Getting active to control high blood pressure.American Heart Association.Managing weight to control high blood pressure.American Heart Association.How to manage high blood pressure.Mount Sinai.Heart-healthy diet.Obesity Action Coalition.Hypertension and obesity: how weight loss affects hypertension.Harvard Health Publishing.Novel procedure may lower stubbornly high blood pressure.American Heart Association.Meds, surgery may help obesity-related high blood pressure if diet, exercise fall short.Song P, Zhang Y, Yu J, et al.Global prevalence of hypertension in children: a systematic review and meta-analysis.JAMA Pediatr.2019;173(12):1154–1163. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2019.3310Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Childhood obesity facts.Weisstaub G, Gonzalez Bravo MA, García-Hermoso A, et al.Cross-sectional association between physical fitness and cardiometabolic risk in Chilean schoolchildren: the fat but fit paradox.Transl Pediatr. 2022;11(7):1085-1094. doi:10.21037/tp-22-25
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Adult obesity facts.Powell-Wiley T, Poirier P, Burke LE, et al.Obesity and cardiovascular disease: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association.Circulation. 2021;143(21):e984-e1010. doi:10.1161/CIR.0000000000000973Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.BMI a poor metric for measuring people’s health, says experts.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Body mass index (BMI).Shariq OA, McKenzie TJ.Obesity-related hypertension: a review of pathophysiology, management, and the role of metabolic surgery.Gland Surg. 2020;9(1):80-93. doi:10.21037/gs.2019.12.03World Health Organization.Obesity.Trammel JE, Sapra A.Physiology, systemic vascular resistance. [Updated 2023 Jul 10]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2024. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK556075/American Heart Association.Getting active to control high blood pressure.American Heart Association.Managing weight to control high blood pressure.American Heart Association.How to manage high blood pressure.Mount Sinai.Heart-healthy diet.Obesity Action Coalition.Hypertension and obesity: how weight loss affects hypertension.Harvard Health Publishing.Novel procedure may lower stubbornly high blood pressure.American Heart Association.Meds, surgery may help obesity-related high blood pressure if diet, exercise fall short.Song P, Zhang Y, Yu J, et al.Global prevalence of hypertension in children: a systematic review and meta-analysis.JAMA Pediatr.2019;173(12):1154–1163. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2019.3310Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Childhood obesity facts.Weisstaub G, Gonzalez Bravo MA, García-Hermoso A, et al.Cross-sectional association between physical fitness and cardiometabolic risk in Chilean schoolchildren: the fat but fit paradox.Transl Pediatr. 2022;11(7):1085-1094. doi:10.21037/tp-22-25
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Adult obesity facts.
Powell-Wiley T, Poirier P, Burke LE, et al.Obesity and cardiovascular disease: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association.Circulation. 2021;143(21):e984-e1010. doi:10.1161/CIR.0000000000000973
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.BMI a poor metric for measuring people’s health, says experts.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Body mass index (BMI).
Shariq OA, McKenzie TJ.Obesity-related hypertension: a review of pathophysiology, management, and the role of metabolic surgery.Gland Surg. 2020;9(1):80-93. doi:10.21037/gs.2019.12.03
World Health Organization.Obesity.
Trammel JE, Sapra A.Physiology, systemic vascular resistance. [Updated 2023 Jul 10]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2024. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK556075/
American Heart Association.Getting active to control high blood pressure.
American Heart Association.Managing weight to control high blood pressure.
American Heart Association.How to manage high blood pressure.
Mount Sinai.Heart-healthy diet.
Obesity Action Coalition.Hypertension and obesity: how weight loss affects hypertension.
Harvard Health Publishing.Novel procedure may lower stubbornly high blood pressure.
American Heart Association.Meds, surgery may help obesity-related high blood pressure if diet, exercise fall short.
Song P, Zhang Y, Yu J, et al.Global prevalence of hypertension in children: a systematic review and meta-analysis.JAMA Pediatr.2019;173(12):1154–1163. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2019.3310
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Childhood obesity facts.
Weisstaub G, Gonzalez Bravo MA, García-Hermoso A, et al.Cross-sectional association between physical fitness and cardiometabolic risk in Chilean schoolchildren: the fat but fit paradox.Transl Pediatr. 2022;11(7):1085-1094. doi:10.21037/tp-22-25
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