What is the connection to being overweight and common cardiovascular disease risks?

This falls into 5 categories:

1) Heart Disease: Fat is body tissue, just like muscle or bone, and it needs to be supplied by blood. As you gain weight, more blood vessels must be created and more blood must be pumped to service this new tissue. For every pound of fat that you gain, it takes approximately 1 mile of blood vessels to supply it. Think of the strain on your heart if you gain 10, 20 or 50 pounds of excess fat. Obesity also causes people to have higher levels of blood fats, which can buildup on artery walls and narrow blood flow to the heart. So the heart has to do more work but gets less nourishment – and that’s a recipe for heart trouble.

2) High Blood Pressure: As the heart works harder to send blood through miles and miles of excess fat tissue, it has to beat stronger, and more forcefully. This sends blood pounding against artery walls, damaging them and causing little cracks or scratches. Within these cracks, fatty, waxy material called plaque can begin to accumulate. This provides a foothold for the buildup of more plaque, which can eventually clog up an artery.

3) Strokes: As the arteries clog up with plaque, they can become blocked. Or a piece of plaque may break off and float through the bloodstream until it reaches a smaller blood vessel and forms a blockage. If a blockage forms in an artery that feeds part of the brain, that part of the brain may be damaged or destroyed. This is called a stroke.

4) Diabetes: A substance called insulin helps sugar from the blood enter the body’s hungry cells, where it is used the fuel. But too much fatty tissue makes it difficult for the body to “listen” to the insulin, so the blood sugar just floats on by the hungry cells and builds up in the bloodstream. The cells don’t get fed, and the excess sugar in the blood can damage the kidneys, eyes, heart and nerves.

5) Cancer: Obesity increases the risk of developing cancers of the colon, breast (after menopause), uterus, kidney and esophagus and may also be linked to cancers of the gallbladder, ovaries and pancreas. It’s estimated that 14 percent of deaths from cancer in men and 20 percent of deaths in women are due to overweight and obesity.

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Tags: Daily Health Tip, Heart disease, cancer, Strokes, Diabetes

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