There are times it is normally for the heart to beat harder, such as if you are out hiking and encounter a bear. Your blood pressure will jump so larger levels of oxygenated, nutrient rich blood is sent through your system and you are able to react. All part of the flight or fight response.

When you are diagnosed for high blood pressure your blood pressure is not just high for limited periods of time. It is consistently elevated. This means the heart is constantly working harder than it should.

Here are 7 reasons your heart may be dealing with this increased workload:

1. Atherosclerosis (narrowing of the arteries) – This may be caused by cholesterol deposits along arterial walls resulting in plaque buildup. Fibrosis or endothelial dysfunction may also result in narrower arteries. When arteries narrow the heart has to pump harder (exert more force) to move blood throughout the system.

Continue reading ‘What May Cause High Blood Pressure?’ »

You are at greater risk of heart disease if you were overweight as a teen, compared to those who gained weight later in life. However, it was never clarified if this was because overweight teens become overweight adults OR does being overweight during your teen years cause irreversible damage.

Good news has come out of recent research published in The Archives of Internal Medicine that indicates losing weight mid-life can reduce heart disease risk if you’ve been overweight since your teens.

This research was conducted by Harvard Medial School reviewing data on 19,000 Harvard alumni who entered their freshman year of school between 1916 and 1950. Follow up on these individuals occurred over 82 years and evaluated at habits, heart disease, body mass indexes.

Study results found the heaviest students were most likely to become overweight adults. Obese freshmen men had almost double the risk of dying from heart disease later in life compared to those of normal weight during their college years. Freshmen men who were overweight their freshmen year also had a substantially increased risk of dying from a heart disease.

The good news came when researchers factored in middle age and any change in weight at that time. Men who began college overweight or obese, but lost weight and were considered normal weight in middle age no longer had an increased risk of dying from heart disease.

Continue reading ‘Midlife Weight Loss Reduces Heart Disease Risk’ »

You are probably familiar with the fact that an ‘apple’ body shape puts you at greater risk for heart disease. A new study published August 16th in the online edition of the journal of Radiology has found the fat around your heart may be an even stronger predicator of heart disease risk.

What is heart fat?

Heart fat, or pericardial fat, is hidden behind the rib cage in a pericardial cavity. It appears that pericardial fat releases proinflammatory markers which promote irregular build-up of plaque along coronary artery walls. This plaque build-up leads to atherosclerosis which can result in a heart attack.

Pericardial fat volume is linked to being overweight or obese. The more excess fat you carry, the greater your risk of having high levels of pericardial fat.

The 183 participants of this study were from the community-based Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). All participants were symptom free, meaning they did not show or experience symptoms of heart disease, but the majority of participants were overweight.

How is heart fat linked to heart disease?

Continue reading ‘Heart Fat – Is the fat around your heart increasing your heart disease risk?’ »

Purdue University researchers conducted a study to evaluate the impact of weight discrimination on health declines for obese individuals. The purpose of the study was to show that extra pounds alone don’t account for all the health problems and overweight or obese individual lives with. It is theorized that individuals with a higher body mass index are more likely to feel discriminated against due to their weight. The more an individual believes they are a victim of weight discrimination the more their health is impacted.

Continue reading ‘Weight Discrimination – Is your health being affected?’ »

New research indicates using body mass index (BMI) as a tool to measure health risk in older individuals may not be so accurate.

What is BMI

Body mass index is calculated using an individual’s height and weight. Weight in kilograms is divided by height in centimeters squared. BMI is frequently used to assess overall health. The World Health Organization established four BMI categories:

Continue reading ‘Benefit to Being Overweight and Over 70’ »

Being overweight increases your risk for heart disease, diabetes, and other illnesses. A quick and easy way to evaluate your risk is to check your body mass index (BMI).

To calculate your BMI all you need to know is your height and weight. Let’s calculate your BMI right now.

BMI = weight (lbs.) divided by height (in.) divided by height (in.) x 703

For example, if you weight is 200 pounds and you are 5’10” (70 in.), your BMI equals 29.

200 divided by 70 divided by 70 x 703 = 28.7

BMI Categories:

Continue reading ‘How does your BMI measure up?’ »

Researchers periodically evaluate data from NHANES (National Healthy and Nutrition Examination Survey). Recently rates of obesity were compared over the past 50 years.

Between 1960-1980 the number of adults who were obese stayed relatively stable. Between 1976-1980 and 1988-1994 data the number of obese adults in the US increased 8 percentage points. Then between 1999-2000 data reported further increases in the number of U.S. obese adults.

Well, the latest research has been analyzed again and the good news is that the percentage of obese women did not significantly increase between 1999 and 2008.

If obesity is not longer increasing, that is great news; but the fact that 68% of U.S. adults are overweight or obese and 32% of U.S. school children are above the 85th percentile BMI-for-age leaves plenty of room for concern.

It’s still critical that individuals who are overweight or obese take steps to lose the extra pounds. Obesity is a major health risk increasing risk for many diseases, including heart disease and cancer.

Overweight is defined as a body mass index (BMI) between 25-29.9.
Obesity is defined as a body mass index above 30.0.

Don’t know where you fall? Here’s a how to calculate your BMI:

Weight divided by height divided by height x 703 = BMI

Here’s an example:

Height = 64 inches
Weight = 150 pounds

150 divided by 64 divided by 64 x 703 = 25.7 (overweight)

The first step is to evaluate your situation and outline a plan of action. A Mini Diet Makeover will complete this for you – http://www.lisanelsonrd.com/minidietmakeover.html.

Have you been successful losing weight? I’d love to hear your story. You can share your story as a comment below.

All the best,
Lisa Nelson RD
1-A-Week Weight Loss Tips
http://www.weightlosswithlisa.com

A study published in the journal of Obesity examined the health and fitness of new recruits for Boston-area emergency services. The study included 370 firefighter, emergency medical technician, and paramedic recruits with an average age of 26 years-old between October 2004 and June 2007. Out of the 370 recruits, 1 out of 5 were of normal weight, ~44% were overweight, and 33% were obese. The weight of the young recruits is significantly higher than older veteran firefighters from the 1980′s and 1990′s.

All recruits must pass a physical fitness treadmill test, which 93% of the overweight recruits did pass; however 42% of the obese participants failed the standard fitness test. Evidence that it isn’t muscle mass causing BMI scores to be high, which is a common misconception in the emergency responder community. Significant findings due to the increasing death rate in emergency responders due to cardiovascular disease and musculoskeletal injuries. It’s critical for emergency responders to be fit since they are responding to life-and-death situations. Obesity can lead to sleep apnea, which in turn results in drowsy, less alert emergency personnel. Enforcing fitness guidelines and making BMI a vital sign during medical examinations is a step towards improving the health of our emergency service recruits and veterans.

All the best,
Lisa Nelson RD
Top 5 Key Strategies to Lose Weight Permanently

I find it interesting that identical twins raised apart have similar weight gain patterns and fat deposits. If one is overweight, the other is usually overweight. This suggests that 80% of obesity is related to genetics and not eating habits.

My gut reaction is to argue this and say it provides too easy of a cop out for overweight individuals to say “it’s just my genes”. I argue that the remaining 20%, which is determined by how a child is raised, has a signficant impact on overall overweight status.

What do you think?

Additional interesting statistics:
A child with no obese parent has a 10% chance of being an obese adult.
A child with one obese parent has a 40% chance of being an obese adult.
A child with two obese parents has an 80% chance of being an obese adult.

Lisa Nelson, RD, LN
eNutritionServices