Obesity and overweight are two of the main causes of cardiovascular disease and constitute the main risk factor for patients who have suffered a myocardial infarction. More than two-thirds of patients who have had a cardiovascular disorder are obese or overweight. These are two factors that we can minimize by following some simple rules: balanced diet and moderate exercise. In this way we will reduce the risk of our heart suffering from any cardiac pathology. 65% of the world’s population lives in countries where excess weight causes greater mortality than low weight due to lack of nutrition. It is estimated that approximately three million people die each year in the world due to consequences caused by obesity.
Around 16.5% of men and 15.5% of women suffer from obesity in Spain. These percentages are much higher compared to overweight people: half of men and almost a third of women are overweight, according to data from the European Health Survey. Obesity is caused by excessive storage of energy in the form of fat in our body. There are genetic factors that predispose to it, but the main reason for obesity is the imbalance between the calories we receive through diet and their consumption, both through the body’s metabolic reactions and through activity. physical.
When are we considered obese? To know if there is obesity we have to resort to finding out the body mass index (BMI) which measures the relationship between a person’s body mass and their height. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), BMI is one of the main resources to know a person’s nutritional status. We are facing a case of obesity when this index – the parameter that relates weight and height – is above 30 kilos per square meter. Overweight appears when the BMI is between 25 and 29.9 kilos per square meter. To determine how much this index is, you must divide the weight in kilograms by the square of the height in meters.
Obesity has a direct impact on the heart because it produces an overload of effort, since it must pump a greater volume of blood so that it reaches the tissues correctly. This overwork of the heart causes the organ to increase its muscle mass over time to cope with this overload and the arteries become fat, which hinders blood flow and favors the occurrence of a cardiovascular episode such as angina pectoris or a heart attack.
Additionally, thickening of the heart walls, known as ventricular hypertrophy, can cause heart rhythm disturbances and an increased risk of heart failure and heart failure. The fat that accumulates at the abdominal level causes too many fatty acids to be released into the blood, which affects, for example, the liver’s metabolism and causes blood sugar levels to increase. High blood glucose causes damage to the innermost layer of blood vessels, which helps create arteriosclerosis, which is a hardening of the vessels. This process hinders the flow of blood and increases the risk of arterial occlusion.
Among the problems largely associated with obesity is that of causing other risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes mellitus, which are clear threats that can cause cardiovascular diseases. In the case of high blood pressure, for every 10 kilos of weight added to the body, there is an increase in blood pressure of about 2-3 mm Hg.
The key to reducing weight is to achieve balance between what we eat and what we spend. The body can store fat or use it depending on our physical activity and the amount of calories our diet provides us. We must include the consumption of vegetables, legumes, fruits and whole grains in our nutritional habits, while reducing the volume of sugary foods, fried foods and alcohol. In addition, this diet must be accompanied by frequent and moderate physical exercise. It is advisable to follow a daily aerobic activity routine.
