Losing Weight Reduces Your Risk of These Common Health Conditions

As nearly 3 in 4 adults in the United States can attest, weight gain doesn’t happen overnight — it’s a gradual process that occurs over time. While genetics, socioeconomic factors, stress, aging, and gut microbiome imbalance can all play a role in this process, excess weight is mostly a product of unhealthy dietary patterns and inactivity. 

The problem with carrying too much weight? It increases your risk of developing a myriad of serious chronic health conditions. Fortunately, shedding just 5-10% of your body weight can help prevent these problems, stop their progression, or even make them go away. 

Tyneza Mitchell, FNP, and our team at Comprehensive Care Clinic understand that weight loss is an integral component of chronic disease management and prevention for many adults. Let’s take a closer look at how improved weight control protects your health and well-being. 

Beyond the number on the scale 

Weight loss isn’t just about seeing a lower number on the scale or wearing a smaller pant size; it’s also about protecting your long-term health. But what, exactly, does that mean?   

Besides placing increased strain on your cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive, endocrine, and musculoskeletal systems, excess fat tends to accumulate in your midsection, and around your vital organs. Together, these changes help set the stage for chronic disease. 

Get healthier through weight loss 

Extra body weight is a key driver of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, as well as a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Excess weight and insulin resistance are also associated with high blood pressure, which is linked to kidney disease, heart attack, and stroke. 

Conversely, losing excess weight reduces your risk of developing chronic health conditions — or stops existing conditions from worsening. Reaching a healthier weight can prevent or improve the following:  

Hypertension

High blood pressure is a common early effect of weight gain. Why? Extra weight strains your cardiovascular system, making your heart and blood vessels work harder to supply blood to your body. Excess fat can also damage your kidneys, which help regulate blood pressure. 

High cholesterol

When you’re overweight, you’re more likely to have higher total cholesterol levels, higher levels of “bad” LDL cholesterol, lower levels of “good” HDL cholesterol, and higher triglyceride levels. Losing excess weight can help normalize your blood lipid levels and protect your health.

Type 2 diabetes

Excess weight affects how your body uses insulin to control blood sugar levels, making insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes much more likely. By damaging and hardening arterial walls, high blood pressure and cholesterol levels only accelerate insulin resistance. 

While nearly 90% of people with type 2 diabetes are overweight or obese, most can greatly improve — and in some cases, fully reverse — the condition through weight loss.   

Heart disease and stroke

Excess weight, high blood pressure, unhealthy blood lipid levels, and diabetes are top risk factors for heart disease, heart attack, and stroke. On its own, having diabetes essentially doubles your risk of heart disease.

Losing even a moderate amount of weight can help improve insulin sensitivity and blood sugar control, normalize your “heart health numbers” and take excess strain off your heart and blood vessels.    

Osteoarthritis pain

Extra weight places an increased burden on your load-bearing joints (i.e., lumbar spine, hips, knees, ankles), leaving them more vulnerable to osteoarthritis-related damage, degeneration, pain, and stiffness — especially as you age.

Being overweight also generates a state of low-grade systemic inflammation that can further aggravate stressed joints. Weight loss is an effective, drug-free way to dial down inflammation, reduce joint stress, protect joint function, and alleviate pain long-term.   

Certain cancers  

Being overweight is a significant risk factor for many different kinds of cancer, ranging from colon, rectal, and prostate cancers in men to cancers of the breast, cervix, and gallbladder in women. Weight loss is one of the most straightforward ways to reduce cancer risk.  

Losing weight with expert support

As you can see, many of the adverse health effects associated with excess weight emerge in a cascade-like fashion: You might develop insulin resistance and hypertension first, but before you know it, you have high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease, and increased stroke risk. 

Fortunately, even moderate weight loss can put you on the path toward improved health, reducing your risk of these serious chronic conditions as well as many other health concerns that are more common with excess weight, including:   

• Metabolic syndrome (i.e., non-alcoholic fatty liver disease)
• Digestive problems (i.e., acid reflux, gallbladder disease) 
• Respiratory disorders (i.e., asthma, obstructive sleep apnea)  
• Mental health conditions (i.e., depression, eating disorders) 
• Sexual function issues (i.e., erectile dysfunction, low libido)

As medical weight loss specialists dedicated to supporting your wellness needs at every level, our team is here to help you reach your health and weight management goals. Schedule a visit at our office in Spring, Texas, today.