Benefits of diet in people with high blood pressure
Weight loss is recommended in all major guidelines for antihypertensive therapy.
In this study from Germany, body weight and blood pressure (BP) were lowered with diet or orlistat (Xenical).
First, the details.
- The authors searched the medical literature for studies of the effects of weight-reducing diets, drugs, and invasive interventions for weight reduction.
- This report focused on diet, orlistat, and sibutramine (Meridia).
And the results.
- Patients assigned to weight loss diets, orlistat, or sibutramine reduced their body weight more effectively than patients in the usual care/placebo groups.
- Reduction in BP was greater in patients treated with weight loss diets (systolic/diastolic BP: -6.3/-3.4 mmHg) or orlistat (systolic/diastolic BP: -2.5/-2.0 mmHg).
- Systolic BP increased with sibutramine treatment (3.2 mmHg).
The bottom line?
In patients with essential hypertension, a weight loss diet or orlistat resulted in reductions in body weight and BP. By comparison, sibutramine treatment reduced body weight, but not BP.
And dieting does it without those annoying and messy fat globules in your feces.
4/5/08 21:26 JR