Weight Gain is a Risk Factor For Heart Disease
Your heart doesn’t cause heart disease. It starts with you and what you do to your body. There are many things that can begin the process of heart disease such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. Being overweight makes all these factors come together. In turn, you end up with heart disease.
We all know that being overweight has become a huge problem for many different reasons. Becoming overweight can be caused by different factors. In our world of go go go it’s easy to eat the wrong things. We live in a fast paced world where we don’t have the time to exercise. Eating the wrong foods and no exercise are factors in becoming overweight. Once you become overweight your heart takes the strain of trying to work harder, causing heart disease to begin at an earlier age.
By eating things higher in saturated or trans fats you take the risk of raising your bad cholesterol. Bad cholesterol, or LDL, causes plaque to form in your blood vessels. This plaque closes the arteries giving your blood a smaller area to flow through. This raises your blood pressure because it’s trying to push the blood through the arteries. It’s like trying to drink through a straw that is smashed. You have to work harder to draw the liquid through. Not to easy to do.
The risk of suffering a heart attack due to being overweight is tremendous. Because the blood still runs through your arteries the plaque that builds up can weaken and come loose. This sends the plaque freely throughout the blood stream. You take the risk of plugging up the coronary arteries to the heart. If this happens you will have a heart attack because the blood is not feeding the heart properly. You may survive but if you remain overweight the risk of having another heart attack is still there.
Diabetes is also another risk factor for heart disease. Being overweight raises the chance for Type 2 diabetes. With Type 2 diabetes you produce too much insulin. Too much insulin in the blood can cause the lining of the vessels to weaken. If this happens it is easier for plaque to build up. If your doctor sees signs that are leading to Type 2 diabetes there are possible treatments that may reduce the risk of you developing the disease.
Talk to your doctor about the risks of being overweight. He can assist you in a weight loss plan. Getting help before it’s too late can lead to a healthier heart.
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