April 2003
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Moderate weight loss has 'profound' effect on health
By John Tyler
As the warmer months approach, those desiring to lose weight to look great in a swimsuit may have just found another source of motivation. Recent research at Baylor College of Medicine points to significant improvements in cardiovascular health from modest amounts of weight loss.
The study showed that moderate weight loss greatly reduced the risk factors associated with the metabolic syndrome, a little-known phrase for a common disorder that includes a clustering of abnormalities such as elevated blood pressure, high fasting glucose, high triglycerides (chemicals in blood that are derived from fat that is either ingested in food or produced elsewhere in the body), low high density lipoprotein (the so-called ‘good’ cholesterol) and a large waist circumference.
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| Christie Ballantyne, MD |
“Just losing a portion of unwanted weight has a profound benefit in improving these abnormalities,” said Christie Ballantyne, MD, director of Baylor’s Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention. “The health benefits of weight loss can be achieved without dropping nearly as many pounds as someone might want to lose cosmetically.”
Metabolic syndrome is closely related to higher incidence of heart disease, stroke and insulin resistance.
“If you find you have the metabolic syndrome, you have a tremendous opportunity to change the situation through lifestyle modification, diet and exercise,” he said.
The syndrome is very common, Ballantyne said. An estimated 40 percent of people over 50 and nearly one-third of all people between 40 and 50 have three or more of those abnormalities.
“The good news is people don’t have to lose all the weight they’d like to in order to make a big difference,” he said. “Our study showed that many of the people who just reduced their body weight by seven to 10 percent brought their levels back to normal after only a month.”
After reviewing one year of consecutive patients’ charts, researchers determined the prevalence of the syndrome in obese individuals enrolled in a rapid weight loss program, the correlation of weight change with the abnormalities associated with the metabolic syndrome and the response to diet-induced weight loss.
Of 185 individuals, 68 percent were considered to have metabolic syndrome. A moderate decrease in weight induced by a low-calorie diet resulted in substantial reductions of blood pressure, glucose, triglycerides and total cholesterol. Weight loss was related to the changes in each criterion of the metabolic syndrome.
Another study demonstrated that by walking 130 minutes per week and losing
five to seven percent of their body weight, patients prevented the development
of diabetes by almost 60 percent.
Ballantyne recommends everyone over the age of 20 have his or her lipid
profile and blood pressure numbers checked.
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