November 3, 2024 — With the opening of ObesityWeek 2024, it’s worth stopping to consider the radically different situation for obesity medicine today in comparison to a few years ago. Obesity is becoming the new hypertension, says Lou Aronne. He called for it in 2017 and now it’s coming true. Aronne is a past president of the Obesity Society […]
February 8, 2024 — This is not exactly startling news. But two new studies this week do offer a very clear confirmation of one of the important benefits that comes from treating obesity – unmistakably better control of hypertension. One reason this is important is the substantial amount of disinformation that circulates to suggest obesity is not a real […]
November 14, 2023 — Please. We don’t need fake controversies and false comparative claims. But in reporting on an excellent new study of the effects of cutting salt on blood pressure, we’re getting a little bit of both. The study that is generating this frenzy simply doesn’t line up with the headlines that reporters are spinning out of it. […]
March 12, 2022 — A new study in the Journal of Clinical Hypertension tells us that roughly half of youth seeking obesity care have high blood pressure. This medical fact puts us squarely in the middle of a sensitive subject that arouses strong emotions. These emotions have their roots in the bias attached to obesity and the stigma that […]
December 7, 2021 — We’re on our way to enduring two years of this pandemic, and it’s still killing more than five thousand people daily – more than a thousand in the U.S. alone. But, as each of us has learned, that’s not all. Coping with the pandemic has brought stresses that are showing up in our physical and […]
August 27, 2021 — Over the last three decades, high blood pressure has doubled around the world, driven in large part by obesity and poverty. These conclusions come from a new study published this week in Lancet. Obesity, a key risk factor for hypertension, is growing all over the world. But high income countries have been able to control […]
September 17, 2020 — Let’s face facts. We’re losing ground in control of blood pressure and thus in a key measure of heart health. A new study in JAMA last week documented a decline in U.S. rates of well-controlled blood pressure in 2018. This is a reversal of positive trends that spanned decades. This comes before the health impact […]
December 22, 2019 — We’ve seen people get quite red in the face when they expound on the how toxic sugar is. Or on the necessity of taxing sugar sweetened beverages. So perhaps arguments about the subject of sugar are raising blood pressure. But no, contrary to a press release from the University of Toronto, sugar itself does not […]
October 8, 2019 — Hypertension is a significant problem for older adults. But now, it’s becoming a concern for children and youth. A new study in JAMA Pediatrics tells us that the global prevalence of high blood pressure is rising in children and youth. Mainly, it’s because rates of childhood obesity are rising around the world. Eight Times More […]
December 22, 2018 — Among American adults, 29 percent have high blood pressure. Less than half of them have it under control. But more than three quarters of them take blood pressure meds. By contrast, only one quarter of American adults get the exercise that’s recommended for good health. However, a new study in the British Journal of Sports […]
