Modest weight loss curbs high blood pressure risk

Overweight middle-aged and older adults who lose 6.8 kilograms (15 pounds) or more decrease their long-term risk of developing high blood pressure, investigators report. Loss of less weight, if sustained, can also reduce risk.

Though the effects of weight loss on blood pressure are well known, there are few studies that have looked into the long-term results of weight loss on the development of hypertension among adults who start out with normal blood pressure, Dr. Lynn L. Moore, from the Boston University School of Medicine and associates note in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

The researchers' data come from the Framingham Study, in which participants were examined every 2 years since 1948. The team focused on 623 middle-aged disease-free but overweight adults (ages 30 to 49 years) and 605 older adults (ages 50 to 65 years) whose weight remained stable or declined over the ensuing 4 years.

Eight years after the baseline weight measurement, middle-aged adults who lost 6.8 kg or more reduced their long-term risk of becoming hypertensive by 21 percent, while older adults reduced their risk by 29 percent.

Sustained weight loss of as little as 1.8 kg (4 pounds) was associated with a 22 percent reduction in risk among middle-aged subjects and 26 percent among older subjects.

Moreover, Moore's group notes, "There is no evidence that regaining weight has an adverse effect on hypertension." There was a trend toward lower risk if subjects lost weight even when it was not sustained.

Given these findings, the team believes that reducing weight, "even for a few years, may have beneficial physiological effects."

SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, June 13, 2005.