Weight loss benefits for blood pressure quantified

Losing weight has a beneficial effect on blood pressure, concludes the SHIP cohort study. The German research, presented as an abstract (number 10433)at the EuroPRevent meeting, for the first time in a population-based study, quantified the fall in blood pressure that can be achieved with a given weight loss.“Our findings serve to emphasize the importance of controlling the development of obesity in the primary prevention of hypertension at the overall level of the population,” said the first author Marcello Markus, adding that there is an urgent need to increase awareness among both health professionals and the general public about the health hazards of obesity. In the population-based Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP), Markus and colleagues, from Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald, (Germany), examined 3,300 subjects from West Pomerania, in the northeast area of Germany, on two separate occasions spaced five years apart. Both times the investigators recorded information on blood pressure and weight. Results showed that a relative change of 1% in weight was associated with a relative change of 0.24% in systolic blood pressure, 0.26% in diastolic blood pressure, 0.25% in mean arterial pressure and 0.20% in pulse pressure. Furthermore the study showed that an absolute change of 1 kg in weight was associated with an absolute change of 0.39 mmHg in systolic, 0.26 mmHg in diastolic, 0.30 mmHg in mean arterial blood pressure and 0.13 mmHg in pulse pressure. After five years of follow-up, the authors conclude, individuals who lost at least 5% of their initial weight had the greatest chance to control blood pressure levels without medication and to have fewer cardiovascular events. “The data suggest that for individuals who already have established hypertension, the loss in total body weight increases the probability for a normalisation of blood pressure levels,” said Markus Ongoing studies of subgroups with different initial weight values, add the authors, are necessary to explore whether weight loss has a universal benefit on blood pressure. “During the natural ageing process, the majority of individuals increase their waist circumference, even when they lose some weight, and this association between weight, waist circumferences and blood pressure is not quite clear,” explained Markus. *ESC