Obesity and Heart Disease Risk

Obesity and heart disease can be directly linked. While you do not need to be obese to suffer from heart disease, many obese people do end up dealing with this problem. Obesity is when you have too much excess fat on your body. It is this excess fat that puts a strain on your heart, often resulting in heart disease.

Obesity
Obesity results when a person consumes more calories in a day than they burn off. Over an extended period of time, this weight gain becomes extreme and leads to an excess of body fat. When this body fat creates a weight that is 20 percent over your ideal healthy weight, you are considered obese.

Cardiovascular Disease
Cardiovascular disease, also known as heart disease, is a label that refers to a group of diseases that affect the heart or blood vessels. Cardiovascular disease can include heart attacks, coronary artery disease, chest pains and strokes. Heart disease is one of the biggest causes of disease related death in the US.

Obesity and Cardiovascular Disease
Obesity and cardiovascular disease can go hand in hand. Obesity is hard on your entire body, but particularly on your heart. The excess fat on your frame can lead to many different heart problems.

• Obesity reduces your good cholesterol. Reducing your good cholesterol, also known as HDL, can increase the risk of heart disease or stroke. Good cholesterol is responsible for helping flush the fats and bad cholesterol out of your body.

• Obesity increases your bad cholesterol. Increasing your bad cholesterol, also known LDL, clogs up arteries and increases the risk of heart issues dramatically. Bad cholesterol creates fatty deposits in your blood vessels, decreasing blood flow.

• Obesity can raise your blood pressure. Raising your blood pressure makes your heart and arteries work that much harder for longer periods of time. Like any other organs in your body, your heart can grow weak and develop problems as a result.

• Obesity can cause type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is when you do not produce enough insulin or cannot effectively use the insulin you produce to help maintain glucose levels in the blood. The condition wreaks havoc with your heart and greatly increases your chance of heart disease, especially a heart attack.