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So, how does obesity increase your risk of heart disease? Well, the first thing to say
is that obesity is a major risk factor for heart disease. Obesity increases the risk
for heart disease in two main ways. One is obviously you're not getting the benefits
of regular exercise. Those benefits are a reduction in blood pressure, cholesterol,
and overall, well-being.
But in addition to that, obesity itself can lead to heart disease. It leads to a lot of
changes in metabolism, or the way the body works. It could change the way we absorb fats
and cholesterol, it can change the way we react to daily stress, and it can change our
body's physiology to lead to things like high blood pressure.
How obesity leads to heart disease is a very important problem in the United States. Obesity
is an epidemic in the U.S. and in fact, 50 percent of Americans are overweight and a
third of Americans are obese, and this number is only increasing, so it's become a real
problem. Obesity leads to a lot of changes in the body, which can have detrimental effects.
It can directly impact the hearts function leading to promotion of development of atherosclerosis,
or blocked arteries in the heart, a weakening of the heart muscle, and in increased chance
of arrhythmias, or abnormal heart rhythms.
The treatment, would be to adopt a more heart-healthy lifestyle - to change the way we eat, making
healthy choices, increase our cardiovascular exercise, and decrease the amount of stress
in life. So, obesity definitely leads to increased rates of cardiovascular disease, but changing
our lifestyles can definitely help reduce that risk.