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Men, Listen Up: 3 Reasons Why Watching Your Weight Will Improve Your Heart Health

Heart disease is the 2nd leading cause of death in Canada – and men are acutely aware of this fact because on average they tend to develop heart disease 10 years earlier than women. But guys, you can do a lot to lower your risk of heart issues by paying attention to your weight.

First, what is heart disease?  

Generally, when doctors talk about heart disease, they’re referring to a buildup of plaque in the arteries of the heart that can cause blockages and lead to heart failure, heart attack, or even death.

What does losing weight have to do with it?

1. Losing weight puts less of a strain on your heart.

The heart is a muscle, which means it has to work harder to pump more blood around your body when you’re carrying extra weight. “Losing weight will put less of a strain on [the] heart long term,” says Dr. Anil Maheshwari, a primary care physician who also specializes in weight and lifestyle management at the Cleveland Clinic Canada in Toronto. 

“We know that as you gain weight, heart health does suffer,” says Dr. Maheshwari.  “Your heart is a pump trying to pump blood through your body. So, if you have a larger body, it’s more work for the heart…. If you have more mass, the heart has to work harder.”  Forcing the heart to work harder can cause the heart walls to become thickened, which further reduces its efficiency in getting blood where it needs to go in your body.

 “The longer of a period of time that you’re putting a strain on the heart…the more potential issues there will be with heart disease,” explains Dr. Maheswari. Taking action now will take years of stress off your heart.  

2. Weight loss can significantly cut down your risk factors for heart disease. 

“We know that with weight gain, we often see cholesterol levels and blood pressure levels and even sugar levels all start to rise,” says Dr. Maheshwari. High blood pressure, high cholesterol, and high glucose levels all contribute to heart disease – and are among the risk factors that we can do something about by losing weight. “These all take a toll on the heart… So, weight loss is one of the best ways to combat all that and the earlier you do it, the more proactively you do it, the better the results,” Dr. Maheshwari explains. 

Losing weight is kind of a one-two punch against heart disease risk.

3. A big belly can be a sign of dangerous fat around your organs, including your heart.

Men typically don’t worry about belly fat as much as women do, but they should. We all tend to put on weight as we age and our metabolism slows. It’s almost become an accepted fact of life.  Dr. Grace Chua, a community cardiologist in Ontario, says that we should re-think that. It’s not as important for [men] to kind of keep a trim figure. So it’s kind of okay for them to gain…that abdominal weight,” she observes.  However, that extra weight isn’t just making you loosen your belt a notch or two. “That abdominal weight, or belly fat, is not just sitting there, though. It’s very active,” she explains.

Dr. Tasneem Bhatia, an endocrinologist who practices integrative medicine, was invited onto NBC’s Today Show to talk about this phenomenon. “What we understand is that belly fat is one of the first and earliest signs of visceral fat, which is a fat we store,” she told viewers. “It secretes proteins that can trigger inflammation, so it can be your earliest sign that something is not quite right.” Not quite right with your heart health, that is. The visceral fat that Dr. Bhatia is talking about is not the fat that’s just under your skin, but fat inside your abdominal cavity, surrounding your organs, including your heart, where it can do damage.

Cardiologist and researcher Dr. Tiffany Powell-Wiley is a doctor who advocates for more community-based interventions in cardiovascular health in the Washington D.C. area. She has seen more people developing heart disease even at younger ages due to carrying excess weight.  She echoes Dr. Chua’s warnings about belly fat.  “For many years we thought that — and I don’t like to use the word ‘fat’ just because it’s so stigmatizing – we really thought that that adipose tissue was kind of just sitting there and not really doing anything,” she says. “But now we understand that it’s very active. It releases a lot of different chemicals and hormones…that affect different areas in our body, including our blood vessels, that lead to the development of heart disease.”

A good measurement to take note of in determining if the fat around your middle is a problem is waist circumference. For men, more than 40 inches is an issue.

So guys, pay attention to your waistline and your diet. Be active. Moderate your alcohol intake. Dropping some pounds can add healthy years to your life.

To find a physician near you who specializes in weight management, click here.

This article was sponsored by Novo Nordisk. All content is created independently by My Weight – What To Know with no influence from Novo Nordisk.

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