Excess weight causes high blood pressure in half of overweight adults

Italian researchers reported at the American Heart Association’s 61st Annual Fall Conference of the Council for High Blood Pressure Research that as many as 50 percent of overweight people with high blood pressure may have hypertension as a result of weight excess.

Their conclusion is based on experiment at the University of Pavia, Italy, involving overweight hypertensive adults, ranging in age from 29 to 65 years. As many as 50 percent of individuals achieved normal body weight and blood pressure after six months of treatment with a reduced-calorie diet.

According to team leader, the finding shows that in overweight people the blood pressure was not a form of essential hypertension but was secondary hypertension caused by body weight.