Heart Disease and Obesity

Carrying extra weight puts enormous pressure on your body, causing it to work harder to perform routine functions. Everything is working overtime including your heart. So it’s not surprising that heart disease is a common condition associated with obesity.

Heart disease occurs as a result of cholesterol in the arteries that are responsible for delivering blood to the heart. This build up of cholesterol is known as plaque and as it accumulates it narrows the passageway through which blood can travel to the heart. When the heart does not receive enough blood, a variety of conditions can develop including arrhythmias, angina, heart attack, and even heart failure. In fact, heart attack occurs when the arteries leading to the heart are completely blocked.

Obesity is connected with this accumulation of plaque because increased weight can result in increased LDL (low density lipoprotein) - the bad cholesterol that collects in the walls of the blood vessels. Obesity also reduces HDL (high density lipoprotein) - the good cholesterol that delivers excess cholesterol to the liver where it is broken down.

Those who have struggled with obesity have likely found that their LDLs have increased and their HDLs have decreased. As a result, they may have been put on cholesterol medication.

Luckily, losing weight and getting healthy can immediately impact a variety of health conditions including cholesterol. As weight comes off, cholesterol levels may drop to the point where medication may not even be needed.

This struggling with obesity-related disease will often inspire people to choose weight loss surgery as a last chance option for getting control over their health.

Truthfully, while surgery may seem like a scary option, it may be the best choice as continuing to live a life of obesity can mean facing many life-threatening conditions and an overall reduction in life span and quality of life.