Small Weight Gain Can Raise Blood Pressure

Amassing studies report a diverse array of negative health effects of extra  body weight.  Naima Covassin, from the Mayo Clinic (Minnesota, USA), and colleagues enrolled 16 healthy adults, ages 18-48 years, for an eight-week long study in which subjects were fed am extra 400-1,200 calories each day – to increase their weight by about 5 pounds.  Twenty-four hour blood pressure monitoring was conducted prior to the enhanced caloric diet, and afterward as well.  Their results were compared to 10 normal weight, healthy people who maintained the same weight over the eight weeks. The team observed that those subjects who gained weight had a systolic blood pressure increase from an average 114 mm Hg to an average 118 mm Hg.  Further, the subjects who gained more weight inside their abdomen had a greater blood pressure increase. The lead investigator comments that: “"To our knowledge, for the first time, we showed that the blood pressure increase was specifically related to increases in abdominal visceral fat, which is the fat inside the abdomen.”