Weight Loss Can Help With High Blood Pressure
High blood pressure is a very common condition in which the blood exerts too much force on the walls of the arteries as it is pumped around the body. While high blood pressure itself has no symptoms, it is an extremely dangerous condition that can lead to coronary heart disease, heart failure, kidney failure, stroke, and other serious medical conditions. If you are severely obese, it is extremely likely that you have high blood pressure and have probably already been told by your primary care physician, likely more than once in fact, that the two best ways to prevent/reduce high blood pressure are to reduce sodium intake (most adults should keep salt intake to less than 1 teaspoon per day), and maintain a healthy weight and active lifestyle.
Unfortunately, you probably also already know that maintaining a healthy weight and making active lifestyle choices is nearly impossible to do on your own. What you may not realize is that, in addition to high blood pressure, obesity causes other profound metabolic changes in your body that lead to a variety of medical issues—collectively called “metabolic syndrome—that undermine your health and resist efforts to lose weight. For most individuals, surgical intervention may be the only way to break through the negative feedback loop caused by obesity, correct the body’s hormonal and metabolic imbalances at the root of metabolic syndrome, and enable healthy lifestyle choices to have the effect they are meant to have. If you are significantly overweight and have high blood pressure and other obesity-related health concerns, weight loss surgery offers a safe, effective way to follow your doctor’s orders and lose the weight you have wanted to lose for so long!
At Beltre Bariatrics Center for Metabolic and Obesity Surgery in Maitland, Florida, it is our goal to help you understand the benefits of bariatric surgery, as well as the potential risks and drawbacks, and to ensure you have the knowledge you need to make an educated decision. Dr. Wiljon Beltre, Board Certified lead surgeon at Beltre Bariatrics Center for Metabolic and Obesity Surgery, and his team of experienced weight loss experts will help you understand the relationship between high blood pressure and obesity, and will work with you to find the safest, most effective way to improve your health, confidence, and well-being!
The decision to take control over your high blood pressure, obesity, and metabolic syndrome in general through bariatric surgery should not be taken lightly or made quickly. It is a major decision that will have both immediate and long-term consequences for your health and your lifestyle.
Put simply, “blood pressure” is the force of your blood pushing against the walls of your arteries as it is pumped from the heart and circulates around the body to bring oxygen and nutrients to your cells. Blood pressure is not constant, as it goes up and down through the day as activity levels change. However, blood pressure that remains permanently high (also called “hypertension”) can be extremely serious. Your arteries are made of flexible muscle tissue that stretches as the blood passed through the body. As blood is pumped more forcefully, the more the arteries stretch, and when blood pressure remains high, the arteries can be permanently stretched out and damaged, increasing the risk of vascular rupture, blood clots, vascular scarring, arterial blockage, and tissue and organ damage.
Unfortunately, obesity greatly increases the risk of hypertension in several critical ways. First, as you weigh more, your body requires more blood to circulate sufficient oxygen and nutrients, increasing the force with which your heart must pump and the pressure on the arterial walls. Second, obese individuals who are unable to maintain an active lifestyle are at greater risk of high blood pressure, because individuals who are inactive have higher heart rates in general, forcing the heart to work harder and exert more force on the blood. For many obese individuals, however, losing sufficient weight to enable a more active lifestyle and bring high blood pressure under control is not achievable due to the metabolic changes obesity causes to the body, forcing most individuals to rely on a lifetime of medication to regulate blood pressure and avoid long-term health problems.
How Weight Loss Surgery Helps Resolve High Blood Pressure
As one of the most common conditions treated by weight loss, high blood pressure can often be controlled or even reversed through lifestyle changes like maintaining a healthy weight, reducing salt intake, and exercising regularly. Medication may still be necessary in some cases, but a healthy lifestyle is a crucial first step.
If lifestyle changes are not enough, that’s where bariatric surgery will come in. Metabolic surgery can help break the hold that obesity has on your health by enabling rapid and aggressive long-term weight loss, and most patients find that once weight loss begins, there is a concomitant decrease in many other medical problems, including high blood pressure. As you lose weight, the amount of blood your body requires will decrease and the volume of blood will naturally diminish, reducing pressure on the arterial walls. Moreover, the increased activity levels required after, and enabled by weight loss surgery, will make your heart more efficient, thereby reducing high blood pressure in multiple ways.
Contact Beltre Bariatrics Center For Metabolic and Obesity Surgery
At The Center for Metabolic and Obesity Surgery, we offer effective weight loss surgery in Orlando proven to empower you to achieve your weight loss goals, improve your health and appearance, and rebuild your self-confidence. Led by esteemed Board Certified surgeon Dr. Wiljon Beltre, one of the only fellowship-trained bariatric surgeons in Central Florida, we specialize in the latest cutting-edge procedures for safe, effective surgical weight loss coupled with a dedicated support team of caring, experienced specialists who will stand by your side to support you throughout your entire weight loss journey. Significant weight loss is not easy, but with the help of with our confidential consultation process, the surgical skill and experience of our medical team, and the advice and guidance of our on-going support network, we can help you achieve the lasting weight loss success you have been dreaming about.
If you are tired of the endless rounds of fad dieting and fruitless exercise regimens and think you may be ready for weight loss surgery, or if you would like more information about how weight loss surgery at Beltre Bariatrics Center for Metabolic and Obesity Surgery can improve—potentially even resolve—some obesity-related health problems such as high blood pressure, contact us today for a free, individual consultation. We look forward to helping you start your weight loss journey today!
DISCLAIMER: Metabolic surgery involves a lifetime commitment to significant lifestyle changes, and is not for everyone. Individual results differ depending on each patient’s medical history and willingness and ability to adhere to the weight loss program specified by Dr. Beltre. As with all surgical procedures, all forms of metabolic surgery carry the risk of complications and side effects; additional details about potential complications, side effects, and other risks will be provided to you by Dr. Beltre during your pre-surgical consultations.
The doctors at Beltre Bariatrics Center for Metabolic & Obesity Surgery have reviewed and approved this content.
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