SAN DIEGO -- Overweight people who manage to lose just a little bit of weight -- even just a pound a year -- may substantially lower their risk of high blood pressure.
The hard part, of course, is keeping the weight off. But a new study shows that surprisingly little weight loss -- if it can be sustained -- carries a big payoff in better health.The researchers looked at middle-aged people who took off a pound a year for four years and then kept the weight off for at least four more years. These people lowered their risk of high blood pressure over the next 40 years by about 25 percent.
"It's amazing, isn't it?" said Dr. Lynn L. Moore, an epidemiologist from Boston University. "Even that modest amount of weight loss makes a big difference. That's an exciting public health message."
Moore's findings were based on the landmark Framingham Heart Study, which has followed the health of 5,209 residents of the Boston suburbs since 1948. She presented the data Friday at a meeting in San Diego of the American Heart Association.
High blood pressure makes the heart work harder and is an important underlying cause of strokes, heart attacks and kidney disease. About 50 million Americans have high blood pressure. Doctors have long known that too much weight is an important cause of the condition.
Dr. Lynn Smaha of Sayre, Pa., president of the heart association, said the new findings show that people don't need crash diets and big weight loss to be healthier.
"I will be able to tell my patients now that even a small amount of weight loss can make a big difference," Smaha said.
In the study, Moore looked at 1,823 overweight men and women between the ages of 30 and 65. Among them were 405 who lost 4 or more pounds during the first four years of the study and still had the pounds off four years after that.
People who were between 30 and 50 when they lost the weight were about 25 percent less likely to develop high blood pressure over the next 40 years than were those who kept their weight reasonably stable. The payoff was especially big for people between 50 and 65 and were significantly overweight when they took off a few pounds. Their risk was 30 percent lower.
Those who took weight off and then put it back on did not benefit, but they weren't harmed, either.
Just why these people lost weight was not clear. However, Moore speculated that it may not have been intentional. They might have switched to more physically demanding jobs, bought houses that required more yard work or did a variety of other things that gave them more exercise.
Another study by Christine L. Williams of Columbia University showed that the ill effects of weight on blood pressure can be seen even in the very young. She looked at 1,226 children age 2 to 5 who enrolled in a poverty program in New York City.
Almost 11 percent of the children had blood pressure that was high or at the borderline. The risk of this was three times higher in the heaviest 5 percent of the children.
"It's not cute for little children to be overweight and chubby," she said.
Another study by Moore showed how overweight children may pick up their eating habits from their parents. She found that the risk of obesity in kids was especially high for those whose parents fluctuated between strictly watching what they eat and going on eating binges.